A Toddler in Egypt

For the first time I can find in any general conference address, this past April Elder Gong referenced the holy book of Muslims, the Quran. He said this: “Fulfilling prophecy, Joseph, Mary, and the infant Christ child sought refuge in Egypt. In Cairo, a devout Muslim believer reverently says: ‘The Quran teaches that Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus found safety and sanctuary in my country. In my country, Jesus as a toddler ate our food, took His first steps, said His first words. Here in my country, we believe trees bent low to give Him and His family fruit. His being in my country blessed our people and land.’” It does give pause for reflection to consider that Jesus spent time in Egypt in His early years, something that I do not think about very often. He was a refugee there, and I love this feeling of a Muslim that his ancestors took care of the young Jesus and his family as a toddler. There are certainly things about Jesus that separate Christians and Muslims—in particular the idea that He is the Son of God—so it is refreshing to hear of something that can tie these two faiths together. It is significant that Jesus grew up, at least for a short time, amidst a people who were generally not of the house of Israel. Though the Savior’s mission in mortality would be mostly to the Jews, when He commissioned His apostles after His resurrection He sent them to all the world: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19-20). I have to wonder if when the Savior gave these instructions He was thinking about the place He spent time in during His youth where, according to this Muslim believer, they took care of the Him in His toddler years. According to tradition, Mark (who wrote the gospel) did indeed go to Egypt less than a decade after the Savior’s resurrection and established a church in Alexandria.

                Also in Elder Gong’s message was this declaration about the universality of the message of the Restoration: “The Prophet Joseph saw what heaven is like. In heaven, Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, ‘saves all the works of his hands’ in a kingdom of glory. The only exceptions are those who willfully ‘deny the Son after the Father has revealed him.’ As His mortal ministry began, Jesus declared His mission to bless us each with all we are willing to receive—in every time, every land, every circumstance.” We rejoice in the broad salvation revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith: everyone, with very few exceptions, will be saved in the kingdom of glory that they are willing to receive. As a missionary in France, I spoke to many of the Muslims there, mostly from North Africa, and I was impressed by the faith and kindness of so many of them. For the most part, though, the message of the Restoration in its fulness has not penetrated significantly into their communities and countries, and I was left wondering how and when that would happen. Perhaps these verses from Isaiah suggests that, at least for Egypt, this day will eventually come: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea…. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod” (Isaiah 11:11, 15). He will gather people from Egypt, and He will smite the waters in Egypt with a miracle. Perhaps it will be in that day when the descendants of those who took care of the Savior in His toddler days will come to drink fully from the fountain of the gospel of Jesus Christ.