We had a full house for the holidays-all six of our kids and their families.įor a week nobody ever walked by Goldie’s cage without stopping to say hello. I moved her to a bigger bird cage and set her on a table in the basement. I drove around the area to see if anyone had lost a chicken. Isn’t that what Jesus’s birth had taught us? Christmas was the season of impossible things, when the impossible becomes possible. This little chicken was tougher than I thought. Surviving that kind of road accident was nearly impossible.Īlmost as if she heard my thoughts, Goldie started gobbling up her feed. If there’s one thing a chicken needs to survive, it’s two good legs to scratch and peck, run and jump, or perch on a roost to sleep at night. Nothing was broken that I could see, but she’d injured her left hip. But when I tried to stand her up, one leg crumpled beneath her. I stretched out Goldie’s wings-they were in good shape. I found a little bird cage and mixed up some laying mash and scratch feed. Goldie had to be tough to survive now.īy the time we got home it was close to midnight. I always helped Mom with the chickens when I was a boy, when I wasn’t hitching the mule to the plow or chopping firewood for the stove or hunting squirrels and possums with my hound dogs. Even though I still kept chickens the sound brought me back to my childhood in the mountains. Goldie didn’t struggle, just sat on my lap, squawking and clucking the way chickens do. “Take her home, of course,” said Carol Jean. “What am I going to do with Goldie?” I said. It seemed impossible.Ĭradling her in my hands, I took her back to the car. “Must have got hit by a car.” I hated to leave her by the road where a car might hit her again. “Poor thing,” I said, kneeling down beside the soggy heap. It was a chicken! I said there were two things I really love in life. Feathers with a big black grease streak running down the center. Up close I could make out reddish gold feathers sprawled in the slushy snow. I liked to think the hard times made me tougher-I was now 78 and still going strong.Īs the headlights swung toward the highway, I saw something in the road. We didn’t have a bit of flatland to grow crops on, just small areas between the woods where we could grow vegetables here and burley tobacco there-a “patch farm” they called it. It was hard going, but then, everything was back then. Growing up my siblings and I had to cross a big Virginia mountain to get to church-two hours on foot. Tough travels to church were nothing new for me. The snow crunched under the tires as we pulled out. Learn how you can watch it.Carol Jean got behind the wheel. The program will include messages from Church leaders and music performed by The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. The First Presidency will host its annual Christmas devotional broadcast on Sunday, December 3, 2023, at 6 p.m. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is His Church, which He directs. We testify that God lives! Jesus is the Christ - the Messiah. That gift - the Atonement of Jesus Christ - allows all of His other gifts to be ours. The Savior’s infinite and perfect love moved Him to atone for all of God’s children. That birth we joyfully celebrate each Christmas season. Jesus Christ is God’s transcendent gift - the gift of the Father to all of His children (see John 3:16). His was the holy birth foreseen by prophets since the days of Adam. He was born in Bethlehem under the humblest of circumstances. He was born of an immortal Father and a mortal mother. These gifts are made possible because Jehovah condescended to come to earth as the baby Jesus. The most desirable gifts are those offered to us by our loving Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Christmas season is often associated with gifts. It was shared across several Church communication channels: Eyring - released the following Christmas message on Friday, November 24. The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - President Russell M.
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