Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here is why we have so much to celebrate at Christmas. Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

The Atonement: The Ultimate Gift

A. Redeeming and Cleansing Power

A mission president, Brad Wilcox, told this story:

One day a missionary called and asked if I would interview a woman for baptism…

When I met with her, she tearfully told me details of her past she had never shared before with anyone. As a young bride she had become pregnant. She was joyful, but her husband was furious. He scolded her and demanded she get an abortion. He claimed they could not afford a baby. When she refused, he beat her severely and promised that the beatings would continue until she agreed. For her self-preservation, she finally conceded, but she never forgave her husband or herself.

Years later the marriage ended in ruins. On her own she sought a better life, yet she still carried the constant memory of the baby she had given up. Through her tears, she said, “There is not a day that passes that I don’t think about how old my child would be now and what my child would be doing. There is not a day that passes that I don’t privately beg for forgiveness from my child and from God.”

No one knew about this woman’s private prayers. Even her closest relatives were unaware of the abortion or the sorrow that followed it. When she met the missionaries she found new hope as they taught her of Jesus and the Atonement. They spoke of baptism and the chance to be cleansed, but it seemed too good to be true. She convinced herself they were only making such a promise because they didn’t know of her dark deed.

As my interview with her concluded, she said, “Now that you know, I am sure you will tell me I am not worthy to be baptized.”

“On the contrary,” I said, “With all my heart I testify that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ you can be forgiven, cleansed, and made totally whole again.” I explained that the consequences of the choice could not be changed, but the pain she felt could be replaced with peace.

She smiled sweetly and said, “President Wilcox, you have no idea how much I wish I could believe you, but I really don’t think there is anything that can make me clean again. I am afraid that if I got baptized God would curse me for daring to enter such holy water unworthily.” We both left the interview downhearted.

Several days later she requested another meeting. In this interview she told me of a dream in which she was dressed in white ready to be baptized, but when she approached the font it was filled with white flowers instead of water. “What does it mean?” she asked. “What is God saying?”

I responded, “Perhaps this is His way of telling you to not be afraid of baptism. He wants you to be baptized so you can become as clean as those white flowers.”

Together we read the words of Jesus in 3 Nephi: “Return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you.”

She… committed to be baptized the next weekend.

No one attending [her service] realized how many years she had carried the grief, shame, and remorse that accompanied her private decision. No one else knew about her dream and why the [white flowers I brought] meant so much to her. She held them throughout the entire meeting. (The Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox)

I am so grateful the Atonement lets us start over with a clean slate.

B. Enabling power

Elder David A. Bednar taught the following:

I suspect that many Church members are much more familiar with the nature of the redeeming and cleansing power of the Atonement than they are with the strengthening and enabling power…

… Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints—for good men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. We may mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves, through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our …limited capacities.

Nephi is an example of one who knew, understood, and relied upon the enabling power of the Savior. [When the sons of Lehi were returning from Jerusalem where they enlisted Ishmael and his household in their cause, Laman and others in their party rebelled. Nephi exhorted his brethren to have faith in the Lord, but Nephi’s brothers bound him with cords and planned his destruction. Notice how Nephi prayed for deliverance]: “O Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that I may burst these bands with which I am bound” (1 Nephi 7:17; emphasis added).

Do you know what I likely would have prayed for if I had been tied up by my brothers? “Please get me out of this mess NOW!” It is especially interesting to me that Nephi did not pray to have his circumstances changed. Rather, he prayed for the strength to change his circumstances. And I believe he prayed in this manner precisely because he knew, understood, and had experienced the enabling power of the Atonement.

I don’t think the bands…just magically fell from his hands and wrists.] Rather, I suspect he was blessed with both persistence and personal strength beyond his natural capacity, that he then “in the strength of the Lord” (Mosiah 9:17) worked and twisted and tugged on the cords, and ultimately…was enabled to break the bands…(“The Atonement and the Journey of Mortality” by Elder David A. Bednar)

I’m so thankful the enabling power of the Atonement of Christ strengthens us to do things we could never do on our own.

C. Power Over Death and All Sorrow

Elder Robert E. Wells of the First Quorum of the Seventy lived in South America, where he worked as an international banker. Because of the great distances they had to travel, both he and his wife had pilot’s licenses and owned and operated their own planes.

On one occasion they flew from their home in Paraguay to Uruguay with some friends, where they attended the Saturday sessions of a Church conference. They planned to attend the Sunday meetings as well, but were advised of a bad weather report and decided to leave early, trying to return home ahead of the storm.

Everything was going as planned until they flew into some thick clouds and lost visual and radio contact with each other. Elder Wells flew on to the next airport where they had planned to refuel, only to be informed that his wife’s plane had crashed and neither his wife nor the two passengers had survived...

Elder Wells remembers: “…Words will forever be inadequate in expressing the pain that swelled within me, consuming my emotions and numbing my senses. Profound tears of sorrow simply wouldn’t stop flowing. To make matters worse, as my mind was attempting to deal with the devastating realization of my wife’s passing, I found myself experiencing tremendous guilt for having somehow caused the crash…”

…he berated himself for not having had the plane checked out better before they flew. He chastised himself for not giving his wife adequate instrument flying instructions. He felt he was guilty of neglect. Elder Wells continued: “That combined with the remorse and loss of two dear friends in addition to my…sweetheart became almost more than I could bear. Once the tears stopped, I simply lost my desire to continue on…

Following my wife’s funeral in the United States, and after returning to Paraguay with my three [young] children, my mind went into a dark daze. I became a walking vegetable, able to function only on a minimal level. This I did for the sake of the children and for no other reason…Everything I saw was in black and white and had no beauty to it. I simply existed---nothing more.

Then one evening, while on my knees in prayer, a miracle occurred. While praying and pleading to my Heavenly Father, I felt as though the Savior came to my side and spoke these words to my soul and to my ears: ‘Robert, my atoning sacrifice paid for your sins and your mistakes. Your wife forgives you. Your friends forgive you. I will lift your burden. Serve me, serve your family and all will go well with you.”

From that moment, the burden of guilt was amazingly lifted from me. I immediately understood the encompassing power of the Savior’s Atonement, and I now had a testimony that it applied directly to me. While I had previously felt like I could have been swallowed up to destruction, I now realized that Christ had comforted me. Just as my mind and emotions had been at the darkest level, I now experienced light and joy like I had never before known. I was filled with a new desire to serve Christ, His Church, my family, and my employer. The guilt and despair had disappeared.” (Wells, Family History by Elder Robert E. Wells)

As long as we face discouragement, injustice, abuse, disease, and hurts of every kind---even when they come as a result of unintentional mistakes and accidents---we are not alone. Just as trials are a continuous part of life, so too is the Savior’s Atonement continuous.

I’m profoundly grateful that our loved ones will live again.  I’m just as grateful that the Savior comforts us in all our sorrows and wipes away all our tears.

D. No Other Name

- Because Jesus was the one foreordained by the Father, He was the only one authorized to atone for us.

 

- Because He had an immortal Father and a mortal mother, He was the only one capable of atoning for us.

 

- Because of His completely perfect life, He was the only one qualified to atone for us.

 

- [And because of His infinite capacity to love, He wanted to atone for us.] 

“For there is none other name under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). This crucial teaching is so important that it is repeated in all four of the standard works (see Moses 6:52; Mosiah 3:17; D&C 18:23). (The Continuous Atonement by Brad Wilcox)

Perhaps it will take a lifetime or even an eternity for us to fully understand and appreciate the ultimate gift given us by our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ when they gave us the Atonement.  In this season of gift giving it’s good to remember how much we have been given by them.