Sunday, April 20, 2014

I See... a Very Special Easter

This year I started looking forward to Easter right after the Christmas holidays. For some unknown reason, this was going to be a very special Easter, and I was prepared to blog about it this weekend.  I wasn’t sure why, but somewhat deep feelings about my Savior and what he has done for me on an extremely personal level began to constantly occupy my thoughts and time. My analytical mind inevitably took over and made different mental lists seeking to explain the unexplainable. There were several new media offerings being released over the next few months that highlighted Christ’s role as our Savior and Redeemer. Was that it? I was also getting excited about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, for the first time in the history of the world, producing a complete version of Handel’s Messiah on Easter weekend. Could that be what was keeping me awake nights? In March, the Young men and women of the church were focusing on learning more about the Atonement, and through my preparations to teach them about this most momentous event, I was gaining a greater appreciation for His noble sacrifice for us. Perhaps it was just me merely growing more mature and closer to my own eternal destiny, and instinctively preparing to meet my maker?

Then the weekend before Easter Mom passed away. Dad had left this world almost 30 years earlier; they were hopelessly in love with each other, sealed with bonds that would eventually break the bands of death, and Mom patiently waited her turn to rejoin him. In 80 years of an action-packed life of raising seven children, caring for a husband with recurring health problems, and loving over thirty years of newborn babies in maternity wards, her only recorded complaint was ironically one of her last uttered phrases- “can’t I just be with Don again?”

I volunteered to write the eulogy, and in the process of finding the right words to say, I also found the reality of the Atonement and Resurrection. My heart and soul yearned for confirmation that just as Jesus called the expired Lazarus from the tomb to rejoin his family, and He Himself rose three days from the tomb as a resurrected being to rejoin his disciples, Mom and Dad would rise again to join us.  The spirit whispered to me in undeniable terms, transforming my hope into a quiet comfortable knowledge of the reality of the plan of salvation.


Now I have to patiently wait my turn, but I have something to look forward to besides another very special Easter.

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