Monday, September 6, 2010

"yet they rejoice and exult in hope..."

Today I read Alma 28. It's a very brief chapter where Mormon comments on a war that was had at that time between the Nephites and Lamanites. Mormon also comments on the fact that a great many of those who died were not prepared to leave this world.

It is a wonderful thought having a knowledge of the plan of salvation when a loved one dies. I have already blogged about this and will not spend much time on this subject. However, the plan of salvation is also a comfort even before someone passes away.

Yesterday a friend came by the hospital to see my new daughter. As we were chatting she smiled and said that she was mine forever now. I had not thought about it in quite those terms until she said it, but now as I look at her I smile to myself and remember that thanks to my wife and I being sealed for time and all eternity, that yes indeed my daughter is also sealed to us forever.

And I think that's what the title of this blog is meant to convey. I was thinking the other day how the love I have for my wife, I really don't feel the same way as I did when we first met and those heady days of love. These days, I look at my wife, or especially I feel it when she does certain things for me, my heart just fills to bursting with love for her to the point I can't stand it.

After my daughter was born, one of my brothers called and asked me how it all went and in the course of our talking, he asked me if I cried at the birth. I mentioned that I had but not in the way he thought. I did not cry at the miracle of it all or at the joy of seeing my new daughter, I cried out of concern for my wife. Now, she was never in any real danger, but just the natural pain of childbirth and seeing her in that much pain caused me very real pain and I couldn't help but cry. At times I feel like a total wuss when things like that happen. But I love my wife more than my own life, and I feel that love so acutely that it overfills my emotions and tears come out, much like feeling the Spirit very strongly. And everytime I feel that love for my wife I feel tremendous joy at the knowledge that we will not be seperated at death.

And I think it is that joy that Mormon is talking about in this chapter. I have joy in the knowledge that my loved ones who have passed on and I will be reuinted when I die as well and that most of my loved ones are prepared to meet God, and so I too exult in the hope that we will be together again through the tender mercies of a loving God. Until tomorrow.

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