Christmas Eve

My Grandpa during WWII

I am sitting in the light of the nine foot Christmas tree in my room.  I have just taken a long hot bath and I am listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing "Silent Night" as Walter Kronkite tells the story of the Christmas Eve truce. I am missing my grandpa so much I can't see as my eyes fill with tears.  My grandpa Geary died of colon cancer in April of 2000.  In 1995 he was diagnosed.  That Christmas he began to talk about the war.  World War II. He told of Christmas in the foxholes and how for one sweet silent night there was peace in the winter countryside of France.  He fought in the the Battle of the Bulge.  He was forward observer for the 75th Division Cannon Company.  He had never talked about the war before, not to anyone. And suddenly he began to talk.

After The Battle of The Bulge Grandpa helped to liberate Paris

The is Grandpa and his best friend David. My dad is named after him.

Every year after, he would gather us around him and in the light of the Christmas tree he would tell us about the war. Our last Christmas Eve together was in 1999.  Everyone was downstairs opening presents.  I was up in the living room because I had just had my tonsils removed the day before.  Grandpa had just had a tumor removed from his windpipe. We had become very close--he was one of my best friends.  That night he told me that he was afraid to die of suffocation.  The war had instilled in him a fear of creeping gases and being trapped in tight places. He had suffered from asthma his entire life.  He didn't want to struggle for breath.  That night his skin was almost translucent.  Many rounds of chemo had made his body a shrunken husk.  But he was warm and calm and peaceful.  That night he told me that he knew he was going to die.  Then he asked me the impossible. He asked me to sing at his funeral.  I will always remember that Christmas Eve and that is why I miss him so much on this night.

And yet . . .
Death is not the end.  How fitting that this night of nights reminds us that death has no sting.  The grave has no power.  The Son of Righteousness came to save us--with healing in his wings. So now as I watch my niece and nephews in their interminable energy and zest of the season, I know Grandpa is with us.  Families are forever.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son."

Happy Christmas.

The Living Christ

As we commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ two

millennia ago, we offer our testimony of the

reality of His matchless life and the infinite

virtue of His great atoning sacrifice. None other has had

so profound an influence upon all who have lived and

will yet live upon the earth.

He was the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the

Messiah of the New. Under the direction of His Father,

He was the creator of the earth. “All things were made by

him; and without him was not any thing made that was

made” (John 1:3). Though sinless, He was baptized to 

fulfill all righteousness. He “went about doing good”

(Acts 10:38), yet was despised for it. His gospel was a 

message of peace and goodwill. He entreated all to follow

His example. He walked the roads of Palestine, healing

the sick, causing the blind to see, and raising the dead. He

taught the truths of eternity, the reality of our premortal

existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential

for the sons and daughters of God in the life to come.

He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great

atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on

spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced

to die on Calvary’s cross. He gave His life to atone for the

sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in

behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth.

We solemnly testify that His life, which is central to all

human history, neither began in Bethlehem nor concluded

on Calvary. He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only

Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world.

He rose from the grave to “become the firstfruits of them

that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). As Risen Lord, He visited

among those He had loved in life. He also ministered

among His “other sheep” (John 10:16) in ancient America.

In the modern world, He and His Father appeared to the

boy Joseph Smith, ushering in the long-promised 

“dispensation of the fulness of times” (Ephesians 1:10).

Of the Living Christ, the Prophet Joseph wrote: “His

eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white

like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the

brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the

rushing of great waters, even the voice of Jehovah, saying:

“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am

he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father”

(D&C 110:3–4).

Of Him the Prophet also declared: “And now, after the

many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the

testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

“For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and

we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only

Begotten of the Father—

“That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds

are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are

begotten sons and daughters unto God” (D&C 76:22–24).

We declare in words of solemnity that His priesthood

and His Church have been restored upon the earth—

“built upon the foundation of . . . apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone”

(Ephesians 2:20).

We testify that He will someday return to earth. “And

the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall

see it together” (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of

Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall

bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before

Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according

to our works and the desires of our hearts.

We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—

that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God.

He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the

right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the

hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to

happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.

God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.