During the month of December, we had a couple of noteworthy events occur. Jane Baer, the Denver Colorado Temple matron (wife of temple president Mark Baer) was killed in an automobile accident on November 27. We attended her funeral service on December 3, which was presided over by Elder William R. Walker of the Seventy and who is the executive director of the Church's Temple Department. We love Sister Baer. She was a dear friend. It was always a pleasure to see her at the temple. We were privileged to have her and her husband in our home at the time that President Uchtdorf came to visit last year. We will certainly miss her.
On December 9 and 10, Elder Richard G. Scott was in town for the neighboring Colorado Springs Stake conference. A member of our stake had requested a blessing for their 11-year old daughter who is suffering from cancer. Elder Scott agreed to meet with the family, and requested that I and their bishop assist him in administering to her. It was a wonderful experience of instruction for each of us as he began by asking her if she had faith to be healed. He also reminded her that sometimes blessings as pronounced are realized, and sometimes they are not. It all depends upon the will of the Lord, but it is up to us to exercise our faith. Then he asked her if she would be willing to accept the will of the Lord. In the course of the blessing, he invoked the apostolic keys. The whole experience lasted all but about 20 minutes, yet it was one that each of us will remember.
With this being the end of the year, I'd like to share with you a Christmas message, one which I had the privilege of sharing with our stake during our Christmas program earlier in the month..
During the latter half of the twentieth century, the American public enjoyed a daily comic strip which was written and illustrated by Charles Schultz called Peanuts. In that strip there was a lovable character called Snoopy, the pet beagle of one Charlie Brown. In the late 1960s, Snoopy was often portrayed as imagining himself as a flying ace who would do battle with Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron, a famed World War I German fighter pilot. As a result of the popularity of Snoopy’s regular encounters with the Red Baron, a song was produced, which was often played on the radio during the Christmas season, telling the story of a Christmas truce that was enjoyed between these two arch enemies..
Although Snoopy and his owner Charlie Brown were lovable, fictional characters, there was in December 1943, a 2nd Lt. Charles L. Brown who was flying his first bombing mission as pilot-commander of a B-17 Flying Fortress. Their target was an aircraft plant in Bremen, Germany. In the course of their mission, Brown’s plane was repeatedly hit by ground fire and then again by a swarm of enemy fighter planes. A sister ship flying alongside Brown went down in flames. One of his four engines was disabled, and another was sputtering. His tail gunner was killed, three other crewmen were wounded and Brown himself was struck in the shoulder by enemy fire. Yet the heavily damaged B-17 miraculously remained aloft. Brown turned it toward the North Sea, hoping to keep it flying until they reached their home based in Kimbolton, England 250 miles away.
Glancing out the cockpit window, Lt. Brown saw a German fighter plane, a Messerschmitt, flying alongside. This, he thought, was the beginning of the end. His severely crippled bomber was a sitting duck for an enemy attacker. Unbelievably, the enemy aircraft did not attack. "The German pilot was nodding to us,'' Brown recalled. "But we assumed it was just a matter of time before he came in for the kill.'' Suddenly, to the surprise of the crew, the German pilot saluted, rolled to the right and flew off. Brown and his surviving B-17 crew made it safely back to England..
After the war, Brown remained in the Air Force, serving in many capacities until he retired in 1972. But the episode of the German who refused to attack a beaten foe haunted him. He was determined to find the enemy pilot who spared him and his crew.
Charles Brown wrote numerous letters of inquiry to German military sources, with little success. Finally, a notice in a newsletter for former Luftwaffe pilots elicited a response from Franz Stigler, a German fighter ace credited with destroying more than two dozen Allied planes. He, it turned out, was the angel of mercy in the skies over Germany on that fateful day just before Christmas 1943. It had taken 46 years, but in 1989 Brown found the mysterious man in the Messerschmidt. Careful questioning of Stigler about details of the incident removed any doubt.
Sometime after the war, Stigler had emigrated to Canada and was living near Vancouver. After an exchange of letters, Brown flew from his home in Miami to Canada for a reunion. From that time forward, the two men visited each other frequently, and appeared jointly before Canadian and American military audiences.
In his first letter to Brown, Stigler had written: "All these years, I wondered what happened to the B-17, did she make it or not?'' But why did the German not destroy his virtually defenseless enemy? "I didn't have the heart to finish off those brave men,'' Stigler later said. "I flew beside them for a long time. They were trying desperately to get home and I was going to let them do it. I could not have shot at them.” Stigler never reported the episode to his superiors.
After nearly 20 years of a wonderful friendship, both Charles Brown and Franz Stigler passed away in 2008. (A life in the balance is spared aloft: Airman finds counterpart who refused to shoot, Knight Ridder/Tribute News Service, December 28, 1995; Charles L. Brown Obituary". The Miami Herald. December 7, 2008.)
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14) is the phrase that is often sung during the Christmas season. These are the words of the heavenly hosts who were with the angel that announced the birth of our Savior to shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks by night. And later, during the course of His ministry, our Savior would offer these word of comfort, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)
In the course of life here upon this earth, we each experience significant challenges. These challenges offer us the opportunity to grow in strength of character, to prepare for life beyond the grave, and most importantly, enable us the chance to exercise faith in our Savior Jesus Christ who has prepared and is showing us the way back to our Heavenly home from whence we came. It is through remembering and following Him that we experience that peace, and develop that strong desire to extend goodwill toward others.
This time of the year we witness a heightened sense of goodwill in our communities, with men and women rendering service to those in need, perhaps in desperate need. As we each fly over the North Sea of life toward our home base, our heavenly home, may we strive each day of the year to help one another, to take compassion upon one another, to love one another. Again, in the words of our Savior, “A new commandment I give unto you, t
hat ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34)
May the Lord’s choicest blessings be with you in the noble, loving, selfless service that you render. Please know of our great love for you, and that you are continually in our prayers.
May you enjoy a wonderful Christmas season,
The Woodwards
