Loving the Savior: Our Christmas Key

When I was searching for a way to teach our children more about the Savior as Christmas approached, I was touched by some of his own instructions on how to draw closer to him:

“For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

“Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt. 25:35–36, 40).

During family home evening, with our help, the children studied the scripture line by line and suggested people with the specific needs mentioned by the Savior: Four fatherless children received a lovingly constructed gingerbread house and fruit baskets. Their sick aunt, two months in a convalescent center, got cheerful drawings and a newsy visit.

Grammy and Grandpa in the mission field were sent copies of the Book of Mormon, each with a family picture and personal testimony for those “thirsting” after righteousness. An uncle the children had never met had just moved into the neighborhood. He stopped being a stranger with his first shared Sunday dinner.

Another aunt, retarded from birth, beamed through a shopping trip with us. A friend, imprisoned in loneliness and isolation by mental illness, found herself reaching out when four youngsters clamored for her lap and proudly handed her the loaf of bread they had mostly made themselves.

Line upon line, we learned to show love for others and felt the blessing of Christ’s love that Christmas. Esther Jane Ward, Salt Lake City, Utah