The Gift of Life

The Light the World invitation for today is to share how Jesus Christ has blessed your life.  The prophet Jacob shared how he might have responded to this question in his powerful teachings on the plan of salvation to the Nephites: “O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit. And because of the way of deliverance of our God, the Holy One of Israel, this death, of which I have spoken, which is the temporal, shall deliver up its dead; which death is the grave…. O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.”  The Savior overcame death and hell for all of us; because He suffered, died, and rose again, we will all rise again in our bodies.  And because He paid the price of sin we will all overcome our separation from the Father and return to the presence of God.  Without Him, we would have been “shut out from the presence of God” (2 Nephi 9:9-11, 19).

               In the grind of day to day life, though, that can perhaps feel a bit abstract or seem so far away in the future that it doesn’t make a significant difference for us now.  I had an experience on Sunday, though, that caused these truths to hit home a bit more clearly.  It was a very busy Sacrament meeting for us.  I accompanied the congregation on the organ for five songs, going back and forth to the bench to join my wife in between who was trying to manage our six children.  A friend of mine also came for the first time and was sitting with us and I was a bit preoccupied with trying to see that he had a good experience.  After the final song, I played some postlude music for a bit and then worked my way down through the people to visit with my friend. My wife was holding our infant and the other kids were close by, or so I assumed.  I finally made it to my friend and talked with him and a couple of my older children for a few minutes when the primary president in the ward brought me my 21-month-old boy and handed him to me with these startling words: “He was outside.”  He had someone managed to slip away from us unnoticed and not only left the chapel but left the building itself.  I was horrified as I thought about what could have happened if she hadn’t seen him and returned him, if he had found his way near some car that couldn’t see him.  The thought still scares me as I think about what could have been and I am so grateful that she had eyes to see and notice him when I had failed as a parent to keep a proper watch on him.  How grateful I am to the Lord for inspiring her to perform this great act of service!  Every day I pray for the safety and protection of my family, and I know that He was indeed watching over us that day.   

               As I have pondered this experience of my son being saved from danger on a symbolic level as well, it has deepened my gratitude for Jesus Christ and His role in saving us more permanently.  Each of us in this life is in some ways like my little son, eager to make progress but not always able to go in the right direction or keep ourselves free from the dangers and consequences of mortality.  Just as that sister brought my son safely back to his father, so too does the Savior bring us all back to the presence of our Eternal Father with the opportunity to live with Him again.  And He has also prepared the way that not only our heavenly family relationships but our earthly ones as well can be perpetuated forever.  The thought of how I could have lost my son this week is horrifying, and the thought of not having him or the rest of my family throughout eternity is also unimaginable.  I am grateful for not only the safety and protection He silently gives us in so many ways now in mortality, but also for the life we can have forever through His great offering.  As He declared to the brother of Jared, “In me shall all mankind have life, and that eternally, even they who shall believe on my name” (Ether 3:14).  As we learn to believe in Him, I know that we can have the two great gifts of life He offered: “Peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:23)