We Ran For Our Lives

To my daughter, 

                This week in our Come, Follow Me reading we learned about some of the parables of the Savior. Two short parables that we read are these: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it” (Matthew 13:44-46). In the first a man realized that there was a great treasure in a field, and so he sold everything he had to buy the field to have the treasure. In the second a merchant was searching for pearls and found one “pearl of great price.” Like the first man, he sold everything he had to obtain that pearl which was so valuable. This pearl and the hidden treasure are both symbols of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is of more value than any possession we might have on earth and our greatest desire should be to obtain and hold on to these spiritual treasures. The Lord put it this way in our dispensation: “Seek not for riches but for wisdom, and behold, the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto you, and then shall you be made rich. Behold, he that hath eternal life is rich” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:7). We are truly rich when we come to know the Lord, not when have lots of money or possessions. I remember one member of the Church in France on my mission whose testimony really touched me. He explained once to one of the people we were teaching, “Je suis riche! Je n’ai rien mais je suis riche!” What he meant was that he was rich even though he had very little in the way of material possessions. He had searched among many religions for years to find spirituality, and he knew that he had truly found the pearl of great price when he became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His testimony reminds me of the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith: “Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth!” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:19) How blessed we are to have the voice of true gladness in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

                I want to encourage you today to keep learning about the Savior and to love Him more than all other things of this world. Then you will find true joy. Elder Matthew Cowley told an interesting story in 1945 in his first message in general conference. He said this: “In the year 1939, down in New Zealand, we had a very destructive flood. In that flood there were twenty-two white men drowned. They were working on a railway line that was being constructed. There were a large number of native young men working on the same line. Not one lost his life. At the inquest that was held, one of our young natives was asked if he could give a reason why no natives had lost their lives and only white men had suffered. He said, ‘Yes. The white men ran for their money; we ran for our lives.’” In other words, many people drowned because instead of getting out immediately they ran and tried to save their money and didn’t make it out in time. I hope that you and I will spend our lives running after that which is most important—our spiritual lives and serving the Savior Jesus Christ. In the end we will take none of the material possessions that we own into the next life, but the knowledge we have gained about the Savior and the Christlike attributes we have developed will come with us. Always put Him first in your life and you will indeed have joy as you hold on to the pearl of great price!

Love,

Dad