The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints welcomed the Christmas season with the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional on Sunday.
As the concluding speaker for the Sunday evening broadcast, President Henry B. Erying, first counselor in the First Presidency, bore witness of both the Savior’s love and hope and encouraged listeners to share that love and hope with loved ones this Christmas season through simple acts of kindness.
“As we are kind and serve each other as the Savior would, even in the smallest of ways, we can become a channel of God’s grace to help those in our circle of influence feel the Savior’s love and hope,” President Eyring said.
Church President Dallin H. Oaks and President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency, attended but didn’t speak during the Christmas broadcast. The devotional marked the new First Presidency’s first public event together since being set apart roughly two months ago.
In conducting the devotional, Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles extended church leaders’ “love and warmest Christmas greetings” to Latter-day Saints and their families and friends throughout the world.
“As we enter this sacred season, we pray that you will be blessed to experience the peace, hope and love that are made manifest through the saving and redeeming Gift of Jesus Christ,” said Elder Kearon.
Previously a live, ticketed event in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, this year’s devotional featured prerecorded messages by church leaders from the set of the “Savior of the World” production in the Conference Center Theater.
Other speakers were President Jeffrey R. Holland, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Primary General President Susan H. Porter; and Young Men General President Timothy L. Farnes.
President Eyring: ‘J’aime, J’espère’
As a young father, President Eyring would often bake bread with his two daughters.
His girls would mix and knead the dough, and as they waited for the bread to rise and bake, President Eyring would carve a few words into a small, wooden bread board — “J’aime, J’espère” — which means “I love, I hope” in French.
They would then deliver the board and fresh baked loaf to a friend or neighbor who was struggling.
In recalling this tradition during the Christmas devotional, President Eyring said his mind caught onto the words engraved upon the breadboard: “J’aime, J’espére” — “I love, I hope.”
He bore witness of both the Savior’s love and hope and encouraged listeners to share that love and hope with loved ones this Christmas season through simple acts of kindness.
Reflecting on the Savior’s miraculous birth, earthly ministry and glorious Atonement and Resurrection will help individuals feel closer to him, President Eyring noted. “We feel of his kindness, majesty and love.”
President Eyring said he had prayed fervently that his message might “in some small way” help listeners feel the Savior’s abiding love more fully during this sacred season of Christmas — “J’aime, J’espére.”
“As a living witness of Jesus Christ,” President Eyring said, “I promise you that because of him we can always feel of his love and find hope in him, no matter life’s circumstances, good or bad.”
President Holland: Home for Christmas
“Christmas is the one day in the year we would most like to be at home,” said President Holland.
Yet he noted with compassion the many who won’t be home this Christmas — the nearly 85,000 missionaries serving far and wide, usually not close to home; the students who won’t be able to afford the trip back; the hundreds of thousands of service personnel going to war around the globe.
Mindful of those who may feel abandoned this month, President Holland extended a holiday charge to his listeners: “This Christmas, may I invite each of you to be, however briefly, a family for someone who is otherwise alone.”
One popular Christmas song this season is “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” said President Holland, “and if we are not able to be there, we get a little lump in our throats, even if we are grown and gone from the toys and tinsels of our childhood.”
Even two millennia ago, Jesus, Mary and Joseph knew what it was like to be alone and away from home on this special night.
“Loneliness is a terribly painful feeling,” he said. “I know that many have been lonelier than I, but these past three Christmases have been very painful for me without the companionship of that perfect mother,” Sister Patricia Holland, who died in July 2023.
However, he also observed “something redemptive happening to me in this period.” It’s been a time for reflection, for more humility and for showing more appreciation, he said.
“Perhaps this Christmas, we can bless the life of someone who is still temporarily alone in a manner that makes them feel — even for a moment or for a meal or for an afternoon — that they have been able to make it home for Christmas.”
President Porter: ‘Everlasting light’
Giving examples of Christmas Eve experiences throughout the scriptures and in her own life, President Porter testified of the “everlasting light” of the Savior.
Christmas Eve is President Porter’s favorite night of the year. As the sun goes down, she reflects on the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.
Every Christmas Eve, she and her family read the story of Christ’s birth in Luke 2 in the New Testament. While thinking about the young couple traveling to Bethlehem, she also thinks of the events taking place in the land of Zarahemla on the American continent.
There, a group of believers is watching for prophecy to be fulfilled of a day and a night and a day without darkness. Without this sign of the Savior’s birth, all the believers would be put to death, and Nephi cried to God on behalf of his people.
As Nephi cried to God, the Lord said, “Lift up your head and be of good cheer, for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world” (3 Nephi 1:13).
President Porter said every time she reads these verses she stops and marvels that Jesus Christ would soon condescend to come to earth as an infant.
3 Nephi 1:15 says, “For behold, at the going down of the sun, there was no darkness.”
Said President Porter: “What a powerful witness that Jesus Christ came to earth to save all who will believe on his name. The sun had set, but the sky was filled with light.”
President Farnes: A ‘beautiful gift’
One of President Farnes’ most memorable Christmases came as a new missionary in Brazil when a family he and his companion were teaching invited the elders to have Christmas dinner in the family’s small, dirt-floor home.
The young missionary wasn’t initially enthusiastic about the invitation. He questioned what kind of Christmas dinner the family could offer when they didn’t even have a table. He wondered if he and his companion should hold out for an invitation from a more well-to-do family in the ward.
But his senior companion accepted the invitation, and President Farnes was not prepared for what he saw on Christmas day — a table with heaping plates of food and a tall bottle of soda, but only two chairs, one for him and one for his companion.
“I was speechless and overcome with emotion. They had prepared this Christmas dinner just for us. It must have been a great sacrifice for them, and yet, as I sat at the table and looked at the children, sitting against the wall, watching us eat, I saw smiles on their faces. Making a sacrifice for us — strangers from another country — had brought them genuine joy.”
President Farnes said the Brazilian family had given him a “beautiful gift” that “changed my life forever.”
“The memory of that family’s joyful sacrifice turns my thoughts to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, his sacred gift of redemption and healing,” President Farnes said. “After all, his gift is the reason we celebrate Christmas.”
