By Movieguide® Staff
For Hollywood icon David Niven, Christmas is a time to recall the powerful prayer that carried him through a holiday on the frontlines of WWII.
“We were about to be sent to France and no one was very happy about it. Most of the men had been conscripted from good civilian jobs; this was the ‘phony war’ period before the big German attack of the following spring and it all seemed a big waste of time to most of them,” he wrote in an essay for Guideposts.
It was Christmas Eve, and the soldiers were not given leave, which added to a sense of hostility Niven felt — “The air was thick with sarcastic cracks about my bravery in various motion pictures.”
“It so happens that every night of my life I have knelt down by my bed and said a simple prayer,” the actor recalled. “But that night I was faced with a difficult decision. If I suddenly knelt in prayer, here in front of these men, it occurred to me that 40 tough soldiers would take it as a final evidence of Hollywood flamboyance.”
He continued, “On the other hand, I have always felt it wrong to avoid saying my prayers because the situation was not convenient. Besides, here it was the eve of Christ’s birth.”
Related: Actor Shares Bold Christmas Prayer
Niven “summoned up [his] courage” and knelt in prayer.
“As I prayed there was some snickering at first, but it soon died away,” he shared. “When I finished and lay down on the straw, I looked rather sheepishly around the stable and saw at least a dozen soldiers kneeling quietly and praying in their own way.”
Niven concluded, “It was not the first time God had entered a stable — and touched the hearts of men.”
He wasn’t the only Hollywood actor who stepped away from a movie career to enlist and fight in WWII. Jimmy Stewart did the same, and also leaned on his faith while serving. His father sent him a letter containing Psalm 91.
“The thing that takes the place of fear and worry is the promise in these words. I am staking my faith in these words. I feel sure that God will lead you through this mad experience,” the letter read. “I can say no more. I only continue to pray. God bless you and keep you. I love you more than I can tell you. Dad.”
Stewart said of the heartfelt letter, “Dad had committed me to God. I felt the presence of both throughout the war.”
Niven also brought that lifelong faith to his role in the classic movie THE BISHOP’s WIFE, where he starred opposite Loretta Young, another devout Christian.
“She made her faith the center of her life,” Young’s daughter, Judy Lewis, told ABC. “She made choices about her life, even her life in Hollywood, based on that faith.”
Niven’s long-ago Christmas prayer is a reminder that God is with us, even in the hardest of times.
Read Next: How Loretta Young’s Faith Became Part of Her Legacy
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