ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

 

We have the deepest and darkest nights in this earth life. If we endure them well, these nights teach us, give us a broader perspective and in the end heal us. And this is how the healing happens. After every deep and dark night comes the dawn.

Cast your mind on the death of the most prolific, important, significant and worshipped person who has ever lived on this earth. Thirty-four years after His birth, a huge, terrible storm swept over the land of America. The upheaval was of such proportion that the face of all the land was torn apart and deformed. Cities caught on fire and collapsed into the sea and mountains were upheaved (3 Nephi 9:5-22)

So great was the storm that a thick, frightening vapor of darkness covered the land. So dark, thick, suffocating and palpable was the darkness that the stars and the sun could not produce any light for three days (v 23). Imagine the chaos. Could people find their children and their loved ones? Did they know if anybody survived? Could they walk in any direction not knowing where they were? If they were hurt, could they get help?

Imagine such suffering that echoed across continents and caused the Spirit of God to exclaim: “The God of nature suffers” (1 Nephi 19:12). Such was the darkest night that brought about the light of dawn which proclaimed: “I am the light and the life of the world.” (3 Nephi 9:18).

There was no more fitting way to proclaim the Saviour to be the light of the world, the dawn after the night, the power that brings life, the truth that says nothing in this life is lost. This is not the beginning and not the end. First the night and then the dawn….first the death and then the life…..first the emptiness and then the full cup….

I stand in awe of Your sacrifice

And Your soul’s pain;

The body freely given

For nothing of You to remain.

 

I ache, I ache,

Knowing the cost;

Then I remember where You are

And I am comforted

Knowing nothing is lost.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Fill My Cup Lord by Danny Hahlbohm)