While it is Called Today

The Savior said at the time of healing the man born blind, “I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work” (John 9:4).  He was suggesting that He needed to perform the works the Father had called Him to do while He could, and the implication for us is that there will come a time when we run out of time.  He alluded to this to the Nephites when He was among them: “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for strait is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it; but wide is the gate, and broad the way which leads to death, and many there be that travel therein, until the night cometh, wherein no man can work” (3 Nephi 27:33).  There will be a symbolic night that will come in which our chance for repentance and obedience and service will be over.  Amulek made that clear to the Nephites: “After this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed” (Alma 34:33).  We must work our works and prepare ourselves to return to God while it is still “day” for us here. 

                Last night got me thinking about this principle, the importance of acting in the moment while we have the time.  During the bedtime routine my five-year-old got in bed and begged me to read to him.  I initially said no because it was way past his bedtime and I walked out of his room still hearing his desperate pleas for me to read.  Without saying anything, I changed my mind and went to look for the book I had been reading to my kids.  I let a couple of things distract me, and when I finally got back into his room to read to him several minutes later, it was too late—he was fast asleep.  I had missed a chance to show a little more love to him, and I couldn’t get that moment back.  He fell asleep thinking that I was completely deaf to his pleadings instead of with the reassurance of my love.  I had not worked while it was day, and now no labor could be performed. 

               The Savior, unlike us, never missed the opportunity to love and serve those around Him.  He always took the time to perform the labor that the Father wanted Him to, from stopping at a well to invite a woman to repent to taking the time in the moment to love and care for children, from healing a woman with an issue of blood while He on the road to somewhere else to finding Zacchaeus in a tree when passing by.  In each of these stories He was doing something else and could have reasoned that He didn’t have time to deviate from His plan to serve someone.  Or He might have rationalized that He could do it another day—there would always be tomorrow to serve and lift others.  But He didn’t think that; He simply took every opportunity He had to love those whom the Father placed in His path.  And His invitation to us is to go and do likewise today; tomorrow may be too late: “Hear my voice while it is called today, and harden not your hearts” (D&C 45:6)