God So Loved the World

With Easter fast approaching, I have been taking more time to contemplate on what our Savior's sacrifice means for us. Volunteering to sing in the stake choir for the Easter fireside has helped give me more time for contemplation as I sing hymn after hymn about our Savior.
One in particular has captured my heart at the moment. It is Carl J. Nygard, Jr.'s "God So Loved the World". The lyrics are as follows:

God so loved the world

that He gave His only Son.

God so loved the world

that everyone who would believe in His only Son

shall have everlasting life.

For God sent not His Son in to the world,

to condemn the world,

but God so loved the world that through His Son

the world might be saved

God so loved the world

that He gave His only Son,

That all who would believe in Him

would have everlasting life.

The Atonement and the Resurrection bring me to thoughts of life and death.

Last week my friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was two weeks early and was healthy, despite having the cord wrapped around her neck. The doctor said that had she waited the 2 weeks and been born bigger, there would have been dangerous complications to the delivery. The Lord knew that and blessed their family. She would have liked the extra two weeks, but God in His mercy saw fit to bless them with their baby girl in complete health. Our ways are definitely not His ways.

On the other side of the spectrum is death. Last night at choir practice our director asked for forgiveness in a whisper before telling us a story. He told us that a sister was missing from our soprano section. She had gone in for surgery and had died unexpectedly on Tuesday. He told us that her dear husband was even then singing in the choir with us. We heard a choked sob come from the men's section, but I dared not look and invade his privacy. The director told us that after she had passed, her husband had gone in to see her one last time. Her husband is a sealer in the temple and has a firm testimony in the power of the temple. He looked at his sweet wife and said, "well, I'll see you later." The director then went on to ask us to remember this man's testimony and dear wife when we sang "God So Loved the World".  The power is in the words of that song.

I also found out that a wonderful and dear woman named Cindy Simpson passed away last night as well. I grew up with her as a leader and looked up to her. I knew she had moved away and was fighting cancer. Her son let us all know that she passed in her home surrounded by her family.

This life is many things. It is birth, death, joy, sadness, sickness, and health. But what remains the same is the sacrifice of our Savior. Constant throughout eternity is the mercy that Jesus Christ has bestowed upon us. We need not fear meeting our God because Christ's Atonement washes us clean. My friend's new daughter will be able to meet her Savior as pure as she is now, because Christ will take her sins upon Him.  And that dear man and the Simpson family will see their loved ones again because of the Resurrection. Death holds no power anymore. Because of the Son, God will be with you until we all meet again. 

As you fill your eggs and decorate your homes with flowers and bunnies this Easter, take the time to remember the man who has changed history.

Remember the man who was born without riches and was rejected by his own people. 

Remember the man who bled from every poor under the weight of our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane--a Garden filled will olives that when pressed, ooze a blood red juice.

Remember the man who because of his divine nature, had to willingly offer himself up on the cross.

Always remember the man who did this all that you and I might live with him again. Because of him, we will all live again.

"There would be no Christmas if there had not been Easter. The babe Jesus of Bethlehem would be but another baby without the redeeming Christ of Gethsemane and Calvary, and the triumphant fact of the Resurrection." (Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Ensign, Dec. 2000, 2).