Monday Gospel Musings: My Testimony of the Resurrection

picture from www.lds.org

Last Monday in correlation with Easter I wrote my testimony of the atonement of Christ. The atonement was just half of Easter though. Today I'll share my thoughts and testimony of the resurrection of Christ.

My testimony of the resurrection actually began about 18 years before I was born. 20 years before I was born my mother had a little boy. He was very ill though and when he was 2 years old his little body could take no more. My mother was devastated.  Not only had her marriage been ruined by the stresses of it all but now she lost her little one. To make matters worse she was berated by her clergy for her failure as a mother to have her son baptized and told that it was all her fault that her little boy would be damned forever. I'm sure I can only begin to imagine what pain she must have felt.

Eventually she was led to the gospel. I'm sure it was a sweet and holy experience as she felt the Spirit testify that what she was learning was true. Christ loves His little ones and would never condemn someone in such a cruel and unjust manner.  She would see her little boy again in Heaven.

It was her unflinching and unfailing testimony of the power of the resurrection in reuniting us as families in the world to come that made it possible for me to put my own sorrow in perspective just a few years ago as it became time for her and my father-in-law to leave us and rejoin those who had gone before them within weeks of each other and then lose the baby that I'd been carrying only about two months later.

One of the things I was guided by the spirit to find in that time of personal grief talked about the true meaning of hope. Hope seems like such an abstract and somewhat fickle concept because often hopes don't work out the way we wish. When we speak of true hope though - it's not a dream that everything will be sunshine and flowers - true hope is hope given through the atonement and resurrection of Christ that through our Savior we will live again in Heaven where we can be with our friends and family and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through eternity and every promise they've made will be fulfilled.That hope will never fail.

That bleak and empty tomb in Jerusalem stands as a holy beacon to all the world of hope everlasting - that great blessing  that I heard someone call "life after life".

I know I will see my mother again. I know I'll see my grandparents and great-grandparents. I know I'll get to meet my big brother. I know that whatever may happen in this life still to come that I will have my husband and my children there too. There is no sweeter thought that I can think of then to imagine someday sitting at the feet of Christ and Heavenly Father with all my loved ones gathered around me.

As the prophet Isaiah said, "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces" (Isaiah 25:8)