Look to Him

In the most recent general conference, President Christofferson spoke about the car and bus accident that took place in June 2025 which took the lives of 15 people. There were 20 young women on the bus who were headed to a gathering in the capital city of Maseru when the accident took place. President Christofferson commented, “Survivors, family members, and friends have expressed a range of emotions, including moments of anger, depression, and even guilt. Despite these feelings and unanswered questions, they have comforted one another and turned to God through sacred music, the scriptures, and prayer, where they have found solace. Seventeen-year-old survivor Setso’ana Selebeli testified, ‘Jesus Christ loves us and is with us, even though our hearts hurt.’” At the joint funeral service for the ten members of the Church who lost their lives, one sister urged those mourning, “Turn to the Lord, and find the strength to accept His will. Jesus Christ is ‘the author and finisher of our faith’ [Hebrews 12:2]. Don’t look away, but look to Him.” President Christofferson reminded us of Alma’s teachings about looking to God: “Alma cited the example of the brass serpent raised by Moses when the ancient Israelites were afflicted by fiery serpents. The Lord told Moses to make a figure of a serpent and lift it on a pole, with the promise ‘that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.’ Alma explained that the brass figure was a type or symbol of Christ, who would be lifted up upon the cross. Many did look and live, but others were, in Alma’s words, ‘so hardened’ that they simply would not look and perished.”

               The account of this story in the Old Testament describes how the people complained against God because they were hungry and thirsty and they were sick of the manna the Lord provided for them each day. We read, “And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (Numbers 21:5-9). Nephi added the detail that these were “fiery flying serpents” which makes the account sound even scarier. Having poisonous snakes flying around me trying to bite me sounds like a scene from a horror movie. One source suggests that this may have been the saw-scale viper which is highly venomous and apparently can “spring up as high as a man’s waist, and whose bite is incurable” (1 Nephi 17:41). After being bitten the sensation was apparently one of burning (that’s perhaps why they were described as “fiery”), and there were some who in their intense agony would not lift their eyes to the brass serpent that Moses raised before them to be healed. While it is easy to think that they must have been crazy not to take the simple action of looking in order to be healed, perhaps we do something similar when in our own agony and struggles we do not turn to the Lord as we should. As Alma invited Helaman, “O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look we may live forever” (Alma 37:46).

               So how do we look to God in our lives? Ironically, I believe the first step is to close our physical eyes and kneel down in prayer. Then we seek to find Him and His help in the scriptures and in striving to keep the commandments that He has invited us to follow. President Christofferson summarized, “To look to God is to keep His commandments, cry unto Him continually for His support, counsel with Him in all your doings, and let your heart be full of thanks unto Him day and night.” One of my favorite scenes in the scriptures is this one described by John when he and Peter physically looked to the Savior. They were on the Sea of Galilee fishing: “They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes” (John 21:3-6). They had caught nothing by themselves, but when the looked to the Lord on the shore, listened to Him, and then did the small thing he asked of them—cast the net on the other side—they caught so many fish they couldn’t bring them all in. When we go about our lives without looking to the Lord, we are often like these fishermen, toiling all night and catching nothing. But when we look to the Savior and seek to do what He asks, He opens the way before us. Of course we will still face trials, and some may be heart-wrenching like it was for these faithful Saints in Lesotho, but as the sister there taught, we must “[not] look away, but look to Him.”