Hank Smith: 00:02 Hello, everyone. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where

John and I share a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we have Christmas this week, and I know you have one of the best Christmas stories ever.

John Bytheway: 00:17 Well, it’s probably one that a lot of people have heard. I even think the Tabernacle Choir did a re-telling of it. And I love this story. And actually, Hank, I first saw it on a movie that BYU Productions made, called The Gift, years ago before BYUtv. So, here’s the gist.

 00:34 There’s this young man, he’s going through the catalog, “What can I get Dad for Christmas?” Every morning, Dad wakes him up at 5:00 AM to go milk the cow, shovel the hay for the other animals, do all that stuff. It’s hard. He’s just a kid. One day he’s about to wake up and he hears his dad talking to his mom. His dad says, “I hate to wake him up so early. He’s a young man, he needs his sleep. He’s just growing.” And his mom’s like, “I know, but he needs to learn to work.” And he has this feeling, “Oh, my dad loves me.” He goes and takes care of the cows and everything, and then he has this idea, “I know what I can give my dad for Christmas. I can do the work on Christmas Day in the morning. I can do all of the work and I can surprise my father.” And it’s really a fun movie.

 01:27 Hank, have you ever set the alarm and you just keep checking to see if it’s really going to go off this time?

Hank Smith: 01:32 Yeah. Did I miss it? Did I miss it? Yeah.

John Bytheway: 01:35 Did I miss it? He keeps waking up, “Oh, it’s 1:00 AM.” I think it is 2:00 AM when he crawls out of bed, quietly puts on his galoshes. He walks across the crunchy snow, trying not to wake anybody up. Opens up the door. He says the cow looked surprised. I don’t know. The only expression I’ve seen on a cow is exactly the same look every time, no matter what. But he sees

the cow. He says the cow looked surprised. He milks the cow, he covers up the milk can with some canvas, shovels some hay; does everything he’s supposed to do. And he’s looking at the clock, but he’s, “Oh, no. It’s about the time where Dad comes to get me.”

 02:15 He runs back. He runs up to his room as quietly as he can, dives in his bed. He pulls the covers over himself, hiding that he’s still in his work clothes. And suddenly he hears that knock at the door, and he’s kind of acting, “Oh, Dad.” “Come on, son. I know it’s Christmas Day, but we still have to feed the animals. That’s the nature of farm work.” He says, “I’ll be out in a minute.” And then he hears his dad go down the stairs. He hears his dad walking across the snow, and he hears his dad open the barn door. And that moment right there, Hank, that’s the Spirit of Christmas, because he knows what his dad’s doing.

 02:56 His dad looks at the cow, who’s like, “Again? Hello, I already gave this morning.”

Hank Smith: 03:04 I just did this.

John Bytheway: 03:06 His dad looks at the cow. He lifts up the canvas, sees the milk is full, the hay is shoveled. And the little boy, he’s just giddy. There’s something about giving a gift that is so fun. The little boy is just giddy back there. And his dad walks across the snow, comes up the stairs, opens the door and says, “Son, no one ever did a nicer thing.” And then the part that always gets me, the dad says, “This is the first time I’ll be able to see the girls come down the stairs on Christmas morning. Let’s go out together.”

 03:40 He says, “Every Christmas Eve now, I remember that Christmas of the perfect gift I got for Dad.” And it was a gift of service, a gift of saving Dad some time. And a gift of surprising a cow, which is always an effort.

Hank Smith: 03:57 Right. Even the cow got a Christmas surprise.

John Bytheway: 04:01 So that is a story by Pearl S. Buck. The Tabernacle Choir did a version. You can buy a little book of it. I love the story because I saw that movie and it affected me as a kid; to find a way to serve. And it also affected me because, you’ve heard it all your life, it’s better to give than to receive. And every once in a while when you find a really good gift, it is really fun to give and to feel that.

 

Hank Smith: 04:25 That’s beautiful, and that really is the spirit of Christmas. What can I do that will really bless someone’s life? Because the Savior comes to Earth, he gives us this gift of blessing us in a way that

we can’t comprehend. How can we do that in some small way for somebody else? How can we bless their life?

John Bytheway: 04:47 And the feel of a little of that. You feel that way once, you’ll want to feel that way again.

Hank Smith: 04:51 Yeah, it really is. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We’re with President and Sister Meredith of BYU- Idaho this week. And John, they are a riot.

John Bytheway: 05:06 It’s great. And it’s always Christmas being so cold up there.

Hank Smith: 05:09 Yeah, yeah. It’s Christmas every day in Rexburg.

John Bytheway: 05:13 Yeah, they were great.

Hank Smith: 05:14 They are so much fun. And then come back next week. We are going to start a new year of followHIM Favorites.