From the First Presidency

The First Christmas Gift

By President Dallin H. Oaks

First Counselor in the First Presidency

Adapted from “The Gospel of Peace,” First Presidency Christmas devotional, Dec. 8, 2019, broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

One Christmas, an 11-year-old girl was sad because she did not get a new doll that she had wanted for a long time. She wondered if she was getting too old for Christmas. “You aren’t outgrowing Christmas at all,” her father said. “But you are getting old enough to understand more about it.”

He explained more. “You have heard that we give gifts at Christmas because the shepherds and Wise Men brought gifts to the Christ child,” he said. Then he told her about the very first Christmas gift. It was when Heavenly Father gave us His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. Heavenly Father knew that His Son would suffer on earth, but He still gave Jesus to the world. And Jesus willingly gave Himself so that we could have eternal life.

That night the girl didn’t go to sleep with a Christmas doll on her pillow. But in her heart she had a new feeling of peace. She had a gift that could never wear out or be lost. It was Heavenly Father’s great gift of love.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” John 3:16

Illustrations by J. Beth Jepson