Would you allow me to be a proud grandpa? I’ve enjoyed (and endured) sixty-two Christmases, and increasingly each year, I struggle to wade through the glitz and the ads and the traffic and the noise to find the Christmas spirit.
This year, I received an unexpected gift. My little granddaughter, Ivy, delivered it. You see, a couple of weeks ago, Ivy’s Primary president asked her to give a talk. It was to be her first one.
Now Ivy is anything but shy. The youngest of three, she dominates conversations with insistence and vocabulary that simultaneously provoke and delight you. When her mother, Katie, sat down to help Ivy construct her talk, the precocious tot began to rattle off dialogue, so Katie put pen to paper and simply took dictation. The following Sunday, Ivy gave her talk, and I have to admit, a better testimony, I have seldom heard.
Hi. My name is Ivy Purdie. I am four years old, and I am a Sunbeam in Primary. My talk is about Jesus, and I wrote it by myself.
Jesus was a baby, and then he just grew up. And people got him on that board thing, and he got nails on his toes and hands. And then he waked up again.
Heavenly Father is Jesus’ daddy, and He’s our daddy too. He’s the daddy of our spirit. My daddy that lives here is the daddy of my body because I love him. The mother of Jesus’ body was Mary. Mary loves her son, and Jesus liked Mary too. When Jesus was born, then it was Christmas. Jesus is the brother of my spirit, and I like him.
Jesus has the power of God. He loves all the kids. I like Jesus and Heavenly Father. Jesus loves me. Jesus has a body like me and my brother Aidan and my mommy and daddy. And he just has hair like me too.
Jesus helps me choose the right so I can be happy. Because Jesus died and waked up, I can wake up too, and so can my friends and my brother Aidan and my daddy and mommy and my sister Isabelle.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
When I consider Ivy’s first talk, I remember Jesus’ love for little children and their ability to receive and bear pure testimony. “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Luke 10:21).
Merry Christmas from the Barkdull family to all my Meridian friends!
