The Oil of Joy For Mourning

Amidst the terrible tragedy in Turkey and Syria this week came an incredible story of sacrifice and survival. In the rubble of a house in Syria after the earthquake, a newborn baby girl was discovered, still connected to her mother by the umbilical cord. The mother, father, and four siblings were all dead, but the baby who must have been born after the earthquake to a fatally injured mother was found alive ten hours after the quake. The baby was rushed to the hospital and indeed survived. She was given the very fitting name Aya, which is Arabic for “sign from God.” As I reflected on this story I thought of the scripture describing the mission of the Savior: “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3). Out of the ashes indeed came beauty in this story; out of mourning of death came the joy of life. I cannot explain why such an event took place with over 21,000 dead, but I do believe that “all that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ” as Preach My Gospel promises. We can trust indeed that for all the mourning in this life the Savior can give us the oil of joy in the end. Beauty will always rise from the ashes.

               The ultimate sacrifice given by this mother points us to the Savior who laid down His life for us all. Surely that mother—injured or trapped or both after the earthquake—endured unimaginable pain to stay alive long enough to give life to her daughter and save a life while she was losing hers. And just as she gave her life as she was preserving another, so the Savior died to save us all. During His mortal ministry the Savior alluded to how He would give His life for all of us. He taught, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep…. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself” (John 10:15-18). As His time in mortality was drawing to a close, He said, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:23-24). And at the Last Supper He taught the apostles, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). That was indeed the greater love that He was about to show as He willingly drunk of the bitter cup the Father had prepared for Him as a part of His great plan. We cannot know all the reasons that we too sometimes drink of our own bitter cups, but we can trust that the oil of joy will in the end come to replace our mourning as we trust in Him. As Nephi taught about the Savior: “He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him” (2 Nephi 26:24).