A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

 

“One of the Hebraic meanings of the word “Israel” is ‘ let God prevail’…..The Lord is gathering those who are willing to let God prevail in their lives…. those who will choose to let God be the most important influence in their lives…As an essential prelude to the Second Coming of the Lord, it is the most important work in the world.”  (President Russell M. Nelson, CR October 2020)

I have come to understand one important aspect of ‘letting God prevail’ in our lives….the one of God’s influence through which He teaches us what we need to know, not to educate us but to make us His own.

I have shared before that I have entered into a period of physical suffering which is new to me. For over a year now I have tried to understand its reason. Setting aside the varied explanations that the Gospel offers, I have come to understand and accept the most important one, what Apostle Paul meant when he said he had lost everything for Christ’s sake that he might ‘know him..and the fellowship of his suferings’ (Philippians 3:10).

Through my own minute experience of suffering, feelings of isolation and loss of hope, spiritual understanding was recently given to me to comprehend as much as a human can do so, the Saviour’s descent into the ‘darkness of hell’ and the loss of hope for support and endurance He encountered when the Father withdrew His presence on the hill of Calvary.  This is now what I somewhat understand in the depths of my heart:

“His descent into the darkness of hell gave the innocent Christ the power to carry the lowest of the lowly back up into the light of salvation. Christ placed himself in darkness, not only below the most disobedient of mortals, but below the accumulated darkness of all sins committed throughout the history of time.

“In drinking the cup of gall, Christ gave up all that was native to him, causing him to cry out from its darkness, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  Nothing could have been more foreign, or more terrifying, than being isolated from his Father’s glory.” (B. Grant Bishop, M.D., “The LDS Gospel of Light”, p 96)

That we might know Him, the ‘fellowship of his sufferings’ is immutable, because only then can we truly belong to Him….

Oh the pain that You suffered

As all hope fled and

Darkness embraced You willingly!

But Your light that lifted You

To become a beacon of hope

For all who sample Your sufferings

Is the crowning glory of eternity.

 

My pain, so minute,

Yet my understanding more vast,

With eternal gratitude

I accept the price. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Light of Christ by Land of Dreams)