When
You rose from Your grave
With
healing in Your wings,
Did
I live on in Your heart
As
you ascended to Your throne
To
seal my destiny?
Did
You carry us all in Your bosom
With
the crucible of the cross
Forever
etched in Your memory?
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
I watched a
short video yesterday on the Church website about the birth of Jesus called “Light
the World”. What I saw sent me into an emotional appreciation for two humans, a
young girl and a man who stood by her side, enabling the Creator of the
Universe and the Saviour of all mankind to enter the world of mortality.
It reminded
me of the Jews who spat His birth into the Saviour’s face by calling Him ‘a
child of fornication’ (John 8:41). What an incredible insult to the purity of a
woman who put everything on the line of her reputation to enable the salvation
of the very people who would crucify the fruit of her womb!
Christ’s
condescension and His willingness to implement the Plan of Salvation at such a
high cost has me in awe. However, the credit to the success of that plan rests not
only on His shoulders but on the shoulders of many of us who have covenanted
before the world began that we would be yoked with Him to uphold His work.
Girls in
the meridian of time married young so historians claim that according to the
traditions of the day, Mary was a young girl of 15 when she gave birth to
Jesus. To take on such a responsibility of raising the child of so much
importance would make many of us retreat. But Mary accepted long ago and she
saw it through.
We don’t
know much about Joseph, but we know this. He was a just man (Matthew 1:19). He
was also an obedient son of God who took Mary for his wife under instruction
from God, not fearing any man (Matthew 1:24).
To say that
Joseph took his responsibility as Jesus’ guardian seriously would be an
understatement. He followed every instruction he received, fearing nothing.
When instructed to protect Jesus from Herod’s edict, he took the family to
Egypt (Matthew 2:12-15).
The third
time an angel appeared to Joseph, he advised him that Herod was dead and that
he should take Jesus back to Israel. Joseph was not only obedient but
over-cautious in protecting his charge, and instead of Judea, he took his
family to Galilee (Matthew 2:21-23).
The Pearl
of Great Price tells us that after much planning God created all things
spiritually before they were created physically. Abraham points out that the
hosts of heaven were involved in sustaining His plans. Many noble and great
ones were chosen to be rulers (Abraham 3:22,23).
Abraham was
chosen to be the father of the faithful and the keeper of the covenant, Moses was
chosen to be the law giver of Israel, Mary was chosen to be the mother of the
Son of God; Joseph, His protector. Joseph Smith, the restorer of the Church…..and
so on.
We,
likewise, have been chosen, if for nothing else but to be the pegs that hold up
the tent of Christ’s church throughout the world. It goes without saying that
God’s Plan of Salvation for his children, could not succeed without His
children.
We are mere
humans but of the highest importance. We stand in our place in this world to
ensure the success of a story of all stories. Each righteous soul shining forth
to light the world……
As
miraculous and amazing as was that baby in the stable, Mary and Joseph were second
to Him.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: On To Egypt by Rose Datoc Dall)
Imagine if
our eternal destiny looked like this:
“….if the
flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who
fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil….and our
spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a
devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the
father of lies, in misery, like unto himself….” (2 N 9:9). Besides calling him
the devil, Nephi’s brother Jacob, also called him ‘an awful monster’ and ‘death
and hell’, meaning ‘the death of the body and also the death of the spirit’
(v10).
Cast your
mind back to the pre-existence. We knew this ‘monster’ as Lucifer, the son of
the morning, who was in authority in the presence of God and who sought the
throne of the Only Begotten Son, whom the Father loved (D&C 76:25,26;
88:115). So great was Lucifer in the beginning that the very heavens wept over
him when he rebelled and became the monster of death and hell (D&C 76:26). Imagine
losing a son and brother with such great potential….and now he is compared to a
thief (John 10:10) who seeks to steal, kill and destroy, for……
He is the collector of ruined lives,
The Master of ravaged souls.
He is the Son of the Morning,
His pride yielded irreversible cost
In the beginning we sorely wept
When his soul was forever lost.
According to Jacob,
eternal misery could never be our outcome because of the goodness of our God
who prepared a way ‘for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster’ (2 N
9:10). Because of the power of the resurrection of the Holy One of Israel,
‘body and spirit shall be restored to itself again and all men become
incorruptible and immortal’ (2 N 9:12,13). The heavens no doubt echoed as we
sang and shouted for joy (Job 38:7) that one was chosen with such integrity of
character, the dependability, the steadfastness, the selflessness, the
perfection, the power, and all the divine attributes that would enable him to rescue
us from hell. Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, became our hope of escape from
the clutches of the one who would make us miserable forever.
If not for You,
Where would I be?
I would belong to the enemy.
If not for You,
Where would I be?
I would be lost in obscurity.
If not for You,
Where would I be?
Death would claim me for eternity.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Jesus the Symbol of Hope by Ivan Guaderrama)
