I don’t know about the rest of the world, but here in Australia, Easter goodies start appearing in stores as soon as the Christmas fare has been cleared away. I used to view this as greedy commercialism but this year I have begun to think differently. Greedy commercialism or not, the world’s focus on Christ diminishes post-Christmas and the Easter goodies now in our stores can somehow keep us in remembrance of Him as we near an even more significant event than His birth.
It is my hope that before Easter, we will as members of His Church, reflect upon a set of enormously significant scriptures found in 2 Nephi. When Nephi, being the dutiful son that he was, inquired of God the meaning of the tree of life that his father had seen in a dream, an angel appeared to him to tutor him. When the angel asked Nephi if he knew what the tree represented, Nephi answered that it is the love of God, most desirable above all (2 Nephi 11:22,23). Immediately following his answer he was shown a vision of the Savior during His mortal ministry. It becomes very clear through Nephi's vision that the love of God is manifest to his children through the gift of His only begotten son.
Living on this side of the veil and experiencing the harshness of mortal life, it is easy at times to feel unloved by God because he allows misfortune to befall us or we don't get in life what we want. We wonder how He could possibly love us when we are in the depths of despair and need so much that we don't have. All the while we are wondering where the love of God is for us, He is hoping against all hope that we would open our eyes and see that He could not give us greater proof of His love than He has already done so through His son. Why would Jesus be the ultimate expression of God's love for us? Because through him God is offering us the greatest gift he could possibly give us, the gift of eternal life. This life is but a moment, a few years of school so to speak but eternity is forever. For this reason God's greatest desire is not that we have everything in this life but in the next and there is only one person who can make that happen.
Now that the celebration of His birth is over, let us prepare for the reminder of one event that we should never forget…..
The fruit, so precious and sweet,
The Father laid at our feet.
No greater gift He had to offer
The broken, the lost and the weary
Than the tree of life,
Yielding fruit with endless supply.
He gathers the fruit spilt on the ground
That multiplies with each harvest of
Penitent hearts.
The fruit, so precious and sweet,
Grows on the cross at the Father’s feet.
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