To an Old Friend on Christmas Eve

XXXXX (name redacted),
Recluse and curmudgeon that I am, perhaps my daughter Sarah is the only one who really understands me.
She knows that some of the events of my life also makes Christmas a weepy time for me, and gives me the space to deal with it in my own private way.
I don't know much, and don't do that well with what I do know, but, like you, I know that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.
Of that, I have no doubt.
Your recent news of your rebaptism was a Christmas miracle for me.
You were hurt, angry, and continue to have a tremendous stubborn streak.
That stubbornness, however, mostly has been a good thing, as you have selflessly loved and served your family, and amazingly even continued to faithfully attend Church.
I stand all amazed at who you are and how you have served and continue to serve so many others.
You boggle my mind, and make me hope that one day I can grow up to be more like you.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (text redacted).
And so it was this morning that I was pondering and praying about how Christ chose to retain his wounds upon his resurrection.
Apostle Jeffrey Holland said that was to reveal how "he was wounded in the house of his friends".
He went on to explain that, "Those wounds in his hands, feet, and sides are signs that in mortality painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect, signs that tribulation is NOT evidence that God does not love us. It is a significant and hopeful fact that it is the WOUNDED Christ who comes to our rescue. He who bears the scars of our sacrifice, the lesions of love, the emblems of humility and forgiveness is the Captain of our Soul. That evidence of pain in mortality is undoubtedly intended to give courage to others who are also hurt and wounded by life, perhaps even in the house of their friends.".
Thank you for who you are.
Larry