Out of the Holes of the Rocks

Jeremiah gave us this famous prophecy: “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks” (Jeremiah 16:16).  In general we understand this to be referring to missionary work and the way in which missionaries will search out the faithful from the four corners of the earth.  The Lord will gather out scattered Israel from the symbolic mountains, hills, and even holes in the rocks.  I think that we might also apply this scripture to the work of redeeming the dead; we similarly search out our ancestors from the four corners of the earth as we try to bring them the saving ordinances of the gospel.  We search out records containing information about our ancestors in any place we can find it, literally scouring the earth for the names of individuals so that we can bring them the ordinances of the temple. 

This movement to search the earth for the names of our ancestors was begun in earnest in 1894 with this declaration from President Wilford Woodruff: “We want the Latter-day Saints from this time to trace their genealogies as far as they can, and to be sealed to their fathers and mothers. Have children sealed to their parents, and run this chain through as far as you can get it. … This is the will of the Lord to his people.”  This goal is still being sought by members of the Church across the world today—we search for the children of God everywhere to bring them the blessings of the gospel, even on half-burnt slips of paper with hard to read Tahitian marriage information from over 100 years ago (as I observed in my indexing project today).  The Lord wants all of His children to return to Him, and though some may be figuratively hiding in the holes of the rocks, He knows them and has not lost them.  The Savior declared in our dispensation: “Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me; And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost” (D&C 50:41-42).  No one is lost to the Lord, whether living or dead, and our job is to search “as far as [we] can” to find them and bring them the gospel.  And, though we might find individuals as part of large groups, they are always “gathered one by one” as they are brought to the Lord through the ordinances of the gospel (Isaiah 27:12).        

Last night I had the privilege with my family to attend a marvelous event celebrating persons once deemed lost, and I was reminded of the individual nature of our efforts to minister to others as well as the Lord’s efforts to reach his children one by one.  The non-profit organization One Refugee helps refugees in Utah gain an education and create successful careers in a nation far from their homelands, and I watched as many of them were honored for their successful attainment of college degrees despite great difficulties.  Though many of them have passed through trials I can’t even dream of, they have, through God’s help, been found from the figurative mountains, hills, and holes of the rocks across the globe and strengthened one by one by.  As members of the Church ours is the responsibility to continue to “fish” and “hunt” among all the living and the dead to bring the willing not only temporal help but also the blessings of the restored gospel.  As Elder Nelson put it, “The message is to invite all of God’s children on both sides of the veil to come unto their Savior and enjoy the blessings of the temple, have enduring joy, and qualify for eternal life. And that will bring hope, help, and lift to all people.”