A Miracle on a Cold Texas Morning


It was early spring in 1917 and the last remnants of a rare Texas snow storm were melting around the farmhouse where my widowed grandmother was raising her six children. This was near the small LDS community of Kelsey, deep in the piney woods of East Texas. My Grandfather and Grandmother White had provided two missionaries with supper and a bed for the night one winter evening back in 1898 and in return, the elders taught them a restored gospel that would bless their family for the next five generations.

On that spring morning in 1917 my uncle Cecil, then fourteen years old, stepped onto the front porch of the farmhouse and carefully dropped his load of the day’s firewood. He saw a large cottontail rabbit hop from behind the big sycamore tree in the lane. Cecil thought of how he would love a hot bowl of rabbit stew for dinner. Times were hard on the farm and any additional food was welcome. “Quick, Reuben,” he called to his twelve year old brother, “Bring me the rifle.” As he took careful aim on the rabbit, he was unaware that Morris, six years old and the youngest of the family, was behind that sycamore tree waiting for the right moment to pounce on the cottontail. Morris and the bullet reached the rabbit at the same instant.

Morris lay on the ground holding his stomach. Grandmother White, hearing the shot, ran out of the kitchen and reached the stricken child at the same time as Cecil and Reuben. As she picked up her son, Morris opened his pain filled eyes and spoke. “Mother, I have been shot. Send for the elders.”

Grandmother always spoke of the faith she saw in the eyes of her injured little boy. His first words were for a blessing. Cecil jumped on the mule and rode out across to pasture toward the place where the missionaries were living. Providentially, he found them and they gave Morris the asked for blessing. Immediately afterward, Elder Smith rode to town and found the country doctor, who performed surgery on the kitchen table of the farmhouse.

Morris’ recovery was always considered miraculous in the little Mormon community of Kelsey. While they gave thanks for the blessing of a healed little boy, the true miracle had occurred earlier in that small Texas farmhouse on a cold winter evening in 1898. Two humble missionaries shared their testimony around a hearth fire and the spirit of the gospel was kindled in a young couple. It would warm generations to come.