2 Nephi 25 Conclusion

[pam]

Conclusion

…The children of Christ know whose they are, whence they came, why they are here, and what manner of men and women they are to become (2 Peter 3:11; 3 Nephi 27:27). Still, the children of Christ, like Alma, will “long to be there” in the “royal courts on high” (Alma 36:22; “O My Father,” Hymns #292). It is the only destination that really matters. Resplendent reunion awaits us! Brothers and sisters, what is more natural and more wonderful than children going home? Especially to a home where the past, the present, and the future form an everlasting and eternal now! (D&C 38:2; 130:7; TPJS,220).

Therefore, let us do as King Benjamin urged us:

Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend. (Mosiah 4:6, 9.)

I ask you, as I ask myself as I prepare to close, as we think of the discipleship involved in becoming the children of Christ, brothers, and sisters, how can there be refining fires without some heat? How can we develop greater patience without some instructive waiting? How can we develop more empathy without first bearing one another’s burdens? Not only that their burdens may be lightened, but that we thereby may be enlightened through greater empathy. How can we have increased individual faith without some customized uncertainty in our lives? How can we learn to live in cheerful insecurity without some insecurity? How can there be the later magnification without some present deprivation?

Except we are thus tutored, how else shall we grow spiritually to become the men and women of Christ? In this brief mortality, therefore, there is so much to do; reveries, even deserved reveries, are often rudely elbowed aside by tutoring adversities. Meanwhile, as faithful children, the challenge is will we prove ourselves, in King Benjamin’s phrase, “willing to submit” (Mosiah 3:19).

Finally, I should like to leave my own witness with you. In my life, whichever way I turn, brethren and sisters, there looms “Jesus! Name of Wondrous Love!” (The Choirbook 24-27). He is our fully atoning and our fully comprehending Savior. And in the words of scripture, there is none like unto him (see Ex 8:10; Ps 86:8; Jer 10:6-7).

Whether taught in the holy scriptures or in the holy temples, his gospel is remarkable. Whether it concerns the nature of God, the nature of man, the nature of the universe, the nature of this mortal experience, it is remarkable. His gospel is stunning in its interior consistency; it is breathtaking in its exterior expansiveness. Rather than being without the gospel in a mortal maze, “I Stand All Amazed” (Hymns #193) at the wonders of that gospel, that we should be privileged to be his children!

Whatever my experiences, the spiritual facts which have emerged from these encompass me. They encompass me and echo the words of King Benjamin about “the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men” (Mosiah 4:6).

Every one of God’s virtues I have counted on, I count on now, I will count on again, whether it is his long-suffering, his matchless power, or his goodness, and so do you. Those are the very virtues that must come, in a measure, to be ours, brothers and sisters. This is the journey of discipleship. We must, like the prodigal son, arise and go to our Father and be prepared for that resplendent reunion. And we can hasten the journey only in so far as we hasten the process of becoming like him, as the children of Christ going home. For his help in my personal journey, I plead, and for his help for you. You are the leaven for mankind, and all the winds of political freedom that blow, that can bring great blessings with them, intrinsically carry within them the added prospects that the children of Christ will be able to reach out to more of their brothers and sisters on this planet with this wondrous message—as we “survey the wondrous cross.”

May it be so, I humbly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Neal A. Maxwell, Children of Christ