I'm going to make my first post for this board in this thread, due to the fact that one of my favorite talks given seems to fit in here very nice. It was a talk given by Elder H. Wallace Goddard. It is called 'A Heavenly One-on-One', and describes in detail his thoughts of the conversation we had with our Heavenly Father before we came here to earth. In my mind I picture a time some ages ago when Father called you and me--each of us individually--to an interview, a Father’s Interview. He looked on us with love and shared His appreciation for us: “I love you, Dear One.” Then He told us: “You are ready to go to earth.” We tensed at the prospect of leaving Him. He continued: “I can customize your earth experience to prepare you for the place you want in Eternity. So the key question is, where do you want to spend Eternity?” Each of us trembled. Dared we say? Dared we hope? He prodded: “Go ahead. Tell me. Please.” We blurted: “Oh Father! I want to be with you! I want to be a part of your work! I want to spend Eternity with Jehovah and all the noble and great ones.” Then we hung our heads in shame. How dare we hope for such a thing? How could we be so presumptuous? But He gently lifted our chins. I imagine a tear coursing down His face. “And that is where I want you. I want you back with Me and all my most cherished Ones.” He pulled us close and filled our spirits with His goodness. We leaned into His love and felt more at home than we ever had. After what seemed like an eternity, He leaned back and sighed. “The education for exaltation is very rigorous and demanding. . ..” We interrupted: “Oh! I’d do anything to be with You again.” He smiled but had a concerned look in His eyes. “Let me show you something.” He opened our minds to see every hour, every minute, every second, every hiccough of our personal mortal experience. After all, He is not a person to sneak big surprises into the small print of our mortal contracts. In my opinion, He showed us every single thing we would experience in our mortal education from the pains of birth to the anxieties of death and every struggle in between. We were sobered. He asked, “Would you bear all of that to return Home?” “Gladly. But . . .” We hesitated. “Can I do it? Am I strong enough? Am I good enough? Do I have a chance of making it?” Father glowed. “No. No, you can’t make it. You would get hopelessly lost on your own. You will often be confused and uncertain. You will become hopelessly forlorn and dispirited. But, if you’re willing to go, I’ll provide my two Extraordinary Helpers. I will provide you my Third-in-command, the Holy Spirit, who will teach you, comfort you, and cleanse you. And I will provide my Second-in-command, my dearly Beloved Son, who will give you the teachings you need. And He will pay the price of all your debts so that you can come Home clean and perfect.” At this point our eyes were big with disbelief and tears coursed down our cheeks. We slipped from His arms to our knees “You would do all that for me?” “Gladly.” “And all the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy”. Never in all of eternity had there been such Good News! Right Then and There we committed to make the perilous journey. We signed the contract. We made a covenant. But, somewhere between our heavenly Home Above to bedeviled and beleaguered earth beneath, we suffered from a veil that hid that sacred pre-trip moment from our view. So we started this journey dazed, forgetful, and vulnerable. The newborn baby cries and flails his limbs. This cold and breezy place is clearly not our Home. The bad news is that things will get worse before they get better. Our mortal pathways are strewn with thorn and thistles. As we journey through mortality in this harsh world, we continue to be vulnerable to brutal attacks. I feel that God’s whole purpose, His goal, His destiny, is to enable each of us to enjoy all His blessings. He has provided a perfect plan to accomplish His purpose. We understood and accepted this plan before we came to the earth. There is not one of us here today who He has not blessed, even if we take the selfish act of only counting our birth. There is a veil between our world of mortality and God’s world of the eternities. It can become very thin at times, but for most of us the veil remains; for he has placed it there to help us learn how we must live, what we must become, to live with him some day. To be able to return to the arms of our Heavenly Father and say, “Yes! Now I remember!”. As mentioned above, the veil will seem to become thin at times, but it will not be truly parted until we return home with honor. And what a truly magnificent day that will be. Yes, I reckon the tears will again stream down our cheeks. Does Heaven have tissues?
