Good Will Toward Men
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Christmas Devotional address delivered at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2002.
I am happy to join with you in this holiday season when we commemorate the birth and life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Savior of the world. We send our love and greetings to all worldwide who are participating in this fireside. We pray for your continued happiness and well-being. We thank you and commend you for your faithful devotion to the work of the Lord in every country.
Christmas is such a special time of the year. It gives us an opportunity to refocus our lives on the Savior and all that He means to us. Christmas is a time to be with dear family members and beloved friends. That is how I have enjoyed the many Christmas seasons of my life. Looking past the festivities of the Christmas season, there was a reawakening of love and appreciation for the Savior and what He did for us in His teachings, in His death, and in His resurrection.
For most of us Christmas has been a season of joy and happiness. It has been for me. In thinking back over those wonderful, delightful Christmas seasons past I have tried to recall what has made them so meaningful. Christmas is many things. It is a time when we have a joyful uplift and feeling good towards everyone. It is a time to be our generous selves. It is a time when we push back for a short time our concerns and challenges and turn off unpleasantness. It is a time when we are able to enjoy the smell of pine and cider; Christmas carols; Christmas lights and decorations; Christmas candles; the story of Jesus being born in a manger, of the wise men, the shepherds, and the angel who proclaimed the greatest announcement ever given, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.1
To many of you who are listening to this broadcast the seasons are reversed. Instead of having snow and cold you have warmer weather. I remember spending Christmases in Brazil on my first mission. We were in a small branch in Santo Amaro. We had a Christmas tree and most of the decorations were wax candles which were lit. The temperature outside was 100 degrees and the burning candles made the temperature inside even hotter than it was outside. Those candles became droopy and were a real fire hazard, and we had a concern about burning the house down.
In my few Christmas seasons away from home and loved ones in far-away places only one was not a happy time.
It was the Christmas of 1943. Ruth and I had been married only a few months, and we had never been separated before. We were in the midst of World War II. Ruth and I said goodbye to each other as I embarked on the Liberty ship in San Francisco to go overseas. We did not know if we would ever see each other again. I spent that Christmas in a military hospital in Cairo, Egypt, following a long, lonely, and arduous 83-day voyage from San Francisco down below Tasmania, in the Antarctic Ocean, and up through the Indian Ocean to Egypt. I had an infection in my foot and was recuperating from a bad cold which I had contracted and which had gone untreated during the journey. As I lay in that hospital in Cairo, I did not feel well, and I missed my new bride and my parents and family very much.
Looking back, however, I benefitted from that experience because it increased my appreciation for my wife, family, and friends and the happiness they brought into my life. I perhaps had taken those blessings too much for granted until then. Being among friends old and new enriches our enjoyment of the holiday season.
I want to tell you about one of my friends who was Santa Clauss helper. His name was Jack Miller. He served as a bishop twice, was in three other bishoprics, and he and his wife served a full-time mission together. He recently passed away. Sometimes Jack dressed as Santas helper and brought joy to our children at Christmastime. But Jack was Santas helper all year round. He was Mr. Fix-it. He was a jovial, friendly, outgoing, salt-of-the-earth soul who would help anyone, anywhere, anytimea 20th-century Good Samaritan with a tool box who would always stop to help stranded motorists. If I were to stop to help a stranded motorist, I could only offer sympathy because I would not be able to fix anything under the hood. I tell my wife I have never been able to fix anything because I have never had the right tools!
But Mr. Fix-it, Jack Miller, always had his tools handy. And besides that he had a big heart. At Christmastime in 1949, Jack Miller and his wife, Ila, had been married a couple of years and were struggling a bit financially. They sat down with Ilas brother, Kenneth Wilson, and his wife Beth, and came up with an idea to earn some extra money for the holidays. They would go the mountains, cut down some Christmas trees, and bring them back to the city to sell.
They obtained the required permit, and then drove to Scofield, some 75 miles away from Salt Lake City. Taking an old-fashioned sleigh pulled by a team of horses, they went deep into the mountains until they found the perfect location, plentiful with beautiful pine trees. After a whole day of cutting and carefully positioning the trees on the sleigh, they went back to Scofield, transferred the trees to pickup trucks, and hauled them all the way to Salt Lake City.
The Millers and the Wilsons set up a Christmas tree lot on the corner of Jacks home. Ken and Beth took the first tree to decorate for their home, leaving 39 for Jack to sell. The trees were so beautiful that many people stopped to inquire about them. Soon only one tree remained. Ila suggested to Jack that he bring it home so they could have their own Christmas tree to decorate. But Jack had already promised the tree to someone else! Only then did he confess that he had given away most of the Christmas trees to needy people so they would not be without a tree. He said, Ila, I cant turn these people away empty-handed at Christmastime! Not only did they have to buy their own Christmas tree from another lot, but they hadnt made a dime in profit!
It is more difficult to cut our own trees these days, but there are other things we can do. Gerald Horton Bath had a favorite story about a missionary teaching in Africa: Before Christmas, he had been telling his native students how Christians, as an expression of their joy, gave one another presents on Christs birthday.
On Christmas morning, one of the natives brought the missionary a seashell of lustrous beauty. When asked where he had discovered such an extraordinary shell, the native said he had walked many miles to a certain bay, the only spot where such shells could be found.
I think it was wonderful of you to travel so far to get this lovely gift for me, the teacher exclaimed.
His eyes brightening, the native answered, Long walk, part of gift.2
Like the natives long walk was part of his gift of the shell, taking the time to go to Scofield and get the trees and bring them back was part of Jacks gift. As we give presents for Christmas, we need to recognize that sharing our time and ourselves is such an important part of giving. We need to take the time not only to do the kind deed but also to look for the right opportunity. The smallest gesture can mean so much to those who may need a little lift in their lives.
May this Christmas be a wonderful season of good will toward men,3 a time for remembering the Savior and the greatest gift ever given. He gave His own life, which brought about eternal life for all of us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
NOTES
2. Norman Vincent Peale, My Christmas Treasury, [1991] 146-47.
