Behold the Wounds

In general conference last fall, Elder I. Raymond Egbo told the story of the Nigerian soccer team which won the gold medal in the Olympics in 1996. He said, “Before the Olympics, this team faced numerous challenges. As the tournament began, their financial support ended. The team competed without proper kits, training venues, food, or laundry services. At one point, they were minutes away from being eliminated from competition, but the Nigerian team triumphed against all odds. This pivotal moment changed how they saw themselves. With newfound confidence, and with individual and team hard work and dogged determination, they unitedly ignored distractions and focused on winning.” Because of this focus on what mattered most, they were able to win the gold medal. Elder Egbo commented in these words, “Once the football team learned to ignore the many distractions facing them and focused on their goal, they succeeded beyond what they thought possible and experienced great joy. In a similar way, when we ignore the distractions of the world and focus on Christ and His gospel, we are guaranteed success beyond what we can fully imagine and can feel great joy.” He quoted these words of President Nelson: “When the focus of our lives is on … Jesus Christ and His gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening—or not happening—in our lives.” There are many things every day which, if we let them, can get us down and discourage us. As the pressures of life mount, it is easy to be overwhelmed and mentally distracted from what matters most. There are enough problems to go around that we can always find something to be disappointed about or upset by or concerned with. But, as President Nelson taught, if we can turn our focus away from our problems to the Savior, we can feel joy even when life is not going as we want it.

                Elder Egbo also gave encouragement to parents who struggle with their children to turn their focus to the Savior. He said this: “For parents with children who have strayed, take heart! Instead of wondering why an angel does not come to help your child repent, know that the Lord has placed a mortal angel in his or her path: the bishop, another Church leader, or a ministering brother or sister. If you keep fasting and praying, if you do not set a timetable or a deadline for God, and if you trust that He is stretching forth His hand to help, then—sooner or later—you find God touching the heart of your child when your child chooses to listen. This is so because Christ is joy—Christ is hope; He is the promise ‘of good things to come.’ So trust Jesus Christ with your child, for He is the strength of every parent and every child.” It is easy to lose our focus on the Savior when, as a parent, you are intensely focused on helping children through their challenges. Whether those challenges are related to staying on the gospel path or something else, we desperately want an angel to come and take them away or make them easier. But when our focus is on the problem itself, perhaps that is our sign that we need a paradigm shift to center our thoughts back on the Savior and soliciting His help. He gave us this powerful counsel: “Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not. Behold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the nails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall inherit the kingdom of heaven” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36-37). When we are overwhelmed by our problems or those of our children, we must learn to turn our thoughts to Him and cast out the fear we have related to these challenges.

                I love the new hymn “Behold the Wounds In Jesus’ Hands” which invites us to come unto the Savior. These are the lyrics of the last verse: 

Behold His wounded hands and feet!

Come touch, and see, and feel

The wounds and marks that you may know

His love for you is real.

Then as you fall to worship Him

And wash His feet with tears,

Your Savior takes you in His arms

And quiets all your fears.

Perhaps as we struggle with fears from our own trials, we can strive more often to turn our minds away from the problems and think on His hands and feet that were wounded for us. The words He said to Thomas were surely for all of us: “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing” (John 20:27). We can all do that in our minds’ eye as we picture His outstretched arms to us. As we remember His wounds, our own can start to heal. Then perhaps we will be able to say with Lehi, who faced very difficult challenges throughout his life, “But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15).