By Timothy L. Carver
A small tin container sits on a table in my aunt's living room. In the tin are several folded and worn newspaper clippings. The fragile nature of the clippings bespeaks their age and the many times they have been unfolded, read, re-folded and returned to the tin.
I no longer remember how I came to open the tin and read the clippings. But I will never forget how I felt when I read them. They tell a story that has helped me better understand what the prophets mean when they teach that "charity never faileth".
It was a summer day in Muldrow, a small town in the northeast corner of Oklahoma. Wesley Butcher, my aunt's father, had taken her three older brothers, Vernal, 10, Leonard, 8 and Orville, 6, to dip cattle. Cattle dipping was a procedure where livestock were walked through long vats of insecticide to kill the ticks on their bodies.
The early morning chore had gone well and by 9 a.m. father and brothers were driving their cattle back home. They walked along the dirt road that ran parallel to the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks. Still full of energy the boys ran ahead, playing along the way.
Some distance ahead of their father the three brothers began walking on a trestle bridge over which the railroad tracks ran. The boys were only partially across when they heard the whistle of a quickly approaching freight train. Since the trestle was no more than 10 feet above the ground, the father called to the boys to jump.
Vernal, the oldest, was first to jump. But as Leonard prepared to jump he turned and saw that Orville's foot was caught in a cattle guard. Leonard turned and worked frantically to free his six year-old brother. As the train whistle screamed, both father and Vernal raced to reach the two brothers. Neither would make it in time. Leonard, realizing he would not be able to free his younger brother, simply threw his arms around him and both were struck by the oncoming train.
When their father saw the critical injuries of his sons he quickly flagged a passing motorist. The two boys were placed in the vehicle and hurried to a hospital in Fort Smith, Arkansas, about 13 miles away. Orville died within minutes of being placed in the car. Leonard died later that evening in the hospital.
To seal the act of love, the two boys were buried in the same grave.
One of the clippings in my aunt's tin is an editorial written in Southwest American shortly after the death of her brothers:
"The heroism of eight-year-old Leonard Butcher, a farmer's boy of Muldrow, is a wonderful thing to think about. Leonard was but a child, a farmer's boy, driving cattle down a dusty road. . . Suddenly came danger, to himself and his baby brother. In that instant when Leonard looked back and saw his baby brother stumbling and falling in the path of the engine, Leonard was no longer a child, a farmer's boy, driving cattle down a dusty road. He became a man-sized hero fired with that spirit of self-sacrifice which has made life worth living . . .
"Leonard turned in the face of death, and was hurled into eternity with his baby brother in his arms; his whole mind and heart intent on that very act which the Christian world bases its hope of eternity -- giving his life that another might live."
Within this moving story is found the heart and strength of all Christianity. It is the power of love. It is the kind of love that Paul describes as charity (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). It is stronger than pain, greater than fear, and more powerful than death. It is the motivator for all our Father does. It lies at the very core of the atoning work of His Son.
It is the most powerful force in the universe. Neither hate nor evil will ever defeat it because neither will ever be willing to climb to the same heights nor rescue at the same depths. This level of love "beareth all things" and "endureth all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7). Both gods and man will do things for this kind of love that will never be done for any other reason.
Those who obtain it will find it pulling them, as it did our Savior, through their deepest trials to their most godly successes; whether it is a boy throwing his arms around a younger brother, or a God throwing His arms around us, for "charity never faileth" (1 Corinthians 13:8).
Timothy L. Carver is employed as a high school religion teacher for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is happily married, has two married children and two grandchildren. His hobbies include writing, golf and gardening. He is the co-founder of Families In Zion, a website that provides free family home evening lessons, inspirational stories, and object lessons. http://www.familiesinzion.com
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