For God So Loved the World

Sept. 9, 2017

As I watched this video published on Lds.Org my heart was overcome with all  the Savior has done for each one of us and why He came to earth so many years ago. As a young child growing up in the Methodist Church, I sang with gusto: "Jesus Loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so." Now as an adult member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I still know that Jesus loves me, but the children's songs have advanced to "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and "If the Savior stood beside me" giving a little more accountability to what we are to do with this knowledge of a Savior. He sacrificed so much, loves us  and tells us simply: "If ye love me, Keep my Commandments." (John 14:15) and "As I have loved you, Love one another."

Just this morning, my dear husband said to me on his way to a street display with the young elders,"You know why I came on this mission as hard as it was to leave our comfortable home, our dear friends and our family who we love so much? It is because I can't stand to see people suffer. I want them to have the same peace and joy that I have because of my love for Jesus Christ. I want them to have someone to turn to when loved ones die and they cry out of grief, when they feel alone, when bad things happen as they do often through no fault of their own."

Because of what the Savior suffered in Gethsemane, He can succor us, He knows just how it feels to have cancer, to have a sick child, to be addicted, to lose that which is most dear to us, to feel alone. None of us can cry out that no one understands if we have the knowledge that Jesus Christ lives and He is right there with us and He felt in that sacred Garden,  just what we are now feeling . He came to earth so that we might live more abundantly and joyfully in this life and have eternal life in the world to come. That is why God, our Heavenly Father out of his great, powerful love sent Him here. "For God so loved the world...." (John 3:16.)

I will never forget years ago as a young mother with a critically ill baby I fell to  my knees on a particularly hard day, and cried out, "Oh, Father, I can't stand to see Jakob suffer like this anymore."  My answer? Oh so quietly into my heart and mind came these words: "I know, I saw my Son suffer too." He understood! He had to stand by as His only begotten Son died on the cross..how His heart must have broken as He had to turn away so that even that rejection of the Spirit His Son could understand. The earth broke into two, mountains fell down, the whole world was covered in darkness at the death of His divine son. His heart was breaking.Yet, He, the most powerful being in the universe, reached out to me in my grief and heard me. I knew I could get up from my knees and go on, a little more peaceful, a lot more comforted. "As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be." (Hymn, How firm a Foundation).

                                         

Our baby did not live to see two years old, but because of what our Heavenly Father did for us in sending His son, I know that we will see Jakob again. We will live forever and be united as a family because of the covenants we made in the Temple. Yes, I know that Jesus loves me. I sang it with fervor when eight years old and now I  sing with fervor the hymn: "I know that My Redeemer Lives." He certainly does and it is He who can be our closest friend. I know that Jesus loves me and you and you and you and you and everyone in the world. Does God love us? Yes, He loved us so much He sent His son. And they live! That is our message. That is our mission.