ENCIRCLED IN THE ARMS OF HIS LOVE

This week we have witnessed the unthinkable happen in our midst - a mother had discarded her newborn baby and committed him to the depths of the city drain to suffer the inevitable fate which she had decided upon. Whether the mother was of a sound mind or not is irrelevant to this here insight. Those of us who have been privileged to become mothers are all too familiar with the strong emotional bond and love a mother feels for her helpless newborn baby. Equally strong is the driving force within a mother to nurture her infant so that it might continue to have life. It is not surprising therefore that the Saviour of all mankind would use the metaphor of motherhood to impress upon us His enduring compulsion to save us unto Himself. I think the Saviour foresaw our day and this incident with the discarded infant and He spoke to us who live here and now though this scripture so that we may ever understand His commitment to us, His children:

"Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yeah, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, they walls are continually before me." (Isaiah 49:15-16)

What was the Saviour saying? That it is more likely for a mother to forsake her newborn child, as unthinkable as that is, than for Him to forsake us; that we will never be discarded; that we will never not be wanted; that we alone remove ourselves from His presence. Other than to obtain a body, Christ did not need the experience of mortality. Through His perfect obedience to the Father He was exalted and became a God in His own right whilst in His First Estate. As the firstborn of the Father He stood to inherit all that the Father hath but Celestial Kingdom can be a lonely place without those that you love and He had loved us. And so His infallible love for us, his siblings, produced another reason for Him to enter mortality and thereby become the author of our salvation.

The Saviour longs for the lowliest of us, to make us His own. He longs to encircle us in the arms of His love, to take us home, to have us with Him forever. To this end was He born. To this end came He into the world, to save the world. Do you know how priceless you are? Do you know how beloved you are? Your destiny does not lie in the sewers of this telestial world but in celestial realms above. Your destiny lies in the inheritance of thrones, principalities and dominions in the Celestial Kingdom of our Father. The Saviour lives and He will return and when He does the obedient will become jewels in His crown and will be "...crowned with honour, and glory, and immortality, and eternal life" (D&C 75:5). For this purpose were we born, for this purpose was He lifted. For this purpose He seeks us from all corners of the earth and beckons us with this promise:

"Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." (D&C 6:20)