Spiritual Lessons -- Looking forward to the Second Coming

As I indicated in my last post, I have been experiencing very strong spiritual reactions to certain lines in the Pageant. Those reactions tended to be associated with statements about the experience of others in seeing the Lord, either in the past or as promised in the future.

As part of our regular Pageant activities as we approach the end of the season, we attended a testimony meeting today. Actually, there were several different meetings so that teenagers were together, young adults were together, and the old folks were together. The reason I am explaining all of this is that during the testimony meeting today I had another moment of stark realization. The clarity of that moment contained the following bit of wisdom.

I spent most of the first 25 years of my life getting to understand the flowchart of the plan of salvation. I have spent the last 15 or so years working to comprehend how much our Heavenly Father and our Savior love us. I have heard (and repeated) many times the idea that the phrase "the great and dreadful day of the Lord" refers to the the fact that when He returns people will experience the event in one of two ways. Either they have lived lives of sin and will find the event dreadful, or they have been preparing for the day and will find it a joyful time.

During today's testimony meeting I realized that the experiences I have been having relative to the pageant lines regarding seeing the Savior face to face someday were teaching me to understand that when we feel his love for us and are making reasonable attempts to live the gospel, we will look forward eagerly to his return. We will ache to see him and feel his embrace. Without that aspect, the love of Christ, I had been imagining that the truly righteous somehow wanted the second coming of Christ to happen for reasons akin to reducing the amount of time involved in "enduring to the end." This never rang true- obviously.

In summary, what I learned at Pageant this year is that I can (and should) look forward to the return of the Good Shepherd. I should watch as I read the scriptures for promises that He will return to his flock. The imagery and symbolism of these statements are backed by the promise that He who created the Earth and everything in it loves us more than we can comprehend and wants nothing less than for each and every one of us to become the very best we can be and return to live with Him. He really died on the cross for us, and he still bears the marks in His hands and feet and side to bear witness to it. If we live worthy (i.e., have faith, repent, make and keep baptismal covenants and endure to the end) we will someday have the privilege of seeing those marks and touching him and speaking to him. We will have the chance to feel again that endless love. What better way to shore up our motivation and steady our boats against the winds of the world than to hold that vision close to our hearts?

The Hill Cumorah Pageant

Our family has been participating in the LDS Hill Cumorah Pageant Link Link for the last couple of weeks. When I say participating, I mean that we have been part of the cast. There are a little over 700 of us putting on a religious play that lasts about an hour and 15 minutes. We arrived on site, without casting or script preparations a week to the day before our first performance. There is a phenomenal amount of preparation and professionalism that allows the Pageant to execute so much in so little time.

The objective of the Pageant is to testify of Christ through the retelling of the key stories of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel.

The reason why participation in the Pageant is coinciding with my creation of a gratitude blog is that I have felt so strongly during this trip the hand of God in my life. I have especially been surprised by my deepening testimony of the Savior.

We have been on site for a little over 10 days now. In that time, I think I have shed more tears in less time than ever before in my life. I have felt the spirit so strongly, so often, testifying to me of the divine mission of the Savior and the truth of the messages of the Book of Mormon. I think part of the reason for my deep experience is our location. Spending so much time here in the "Cradle of the Restoration" helps to keep me focused on the reality of it all. I'm sure that even more responsible is the experience of reenacting the key archetypal scenes from the Book of Mormon.

I suspect that I was emotionally prepared for this by our trip to Washington D.C. the week before we started our Pageant experience. Seeing the National Cemetary in Arlington and the memorials dedicated to FDR, Lincoln, Jefferson and others really put me in the right state of mind to appreciate all of our blessings. The hand of God is so apparent in the creation of a free land- where those in power were more focused on the establishment of a free land than the perpetuation of their own personal power...

So while I have felt so very touched by the Spirit these last few weeks, the moment of gratitude I would like to call out in particular something that happened last night. As we have been practicing here, there have been frequent moments in which the Spirit bore strong witness to me, humbling me with feelings of His love for us and the truth of the messages being told. The tender mercy that happened last night is that mid show I realized there was a pattern to my "moments." They weren't just happening randomly or even at my "favorite" parts of the show. Rather, the spirit would bring me to tears at very particular moments, moments when the actors or the narrator were evoking images of either Christ returning or the opportunities that select few have had to see Him and interact with Him. These are a few of the lines as best I can recall them, to illustrate (I'll try to update these as I see more of them and as I have the chance to validate the wording in the days to come):

Nephi: You could promise me no greater blessing. My children's children shall see the face of Christ...

III Nephi: ...after his Resurrection... We shall see His face. We shall call His name and He shall answer us...

Mormon: They [the people of another nation in the future that God shall establish] shall know that the people that lived in this land saw the face of Christ...

Moroni: And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust? [Moroni 10:27]

In the past I have witnessed the shaping of my testimony around other topics. Noticing that these moments have been themed around Christ returning and the promise of seeing his face was a deeply moving experience. I will certainly particpate in subsequent rehearsals and performances with a more focused eye and heart.

Getting Started

I have been feeling really blessed lately. Laurie has been spending a good deal of time and effort posting to the family blog about our family vacation, and that got me to thinking. In particular, I have been thinking about two different talks by LDS leaders. The first is Elder Eyring's challenge in conference recently to keep a journal of all the ways we have been blessed by God in our lives. O Remember, Remember. In that talk he challenged us to find new ways to recognize and remember God's kindnesses to us. The second is the talk by Elder Ballard that encourages us to speak up in the new communications mediums to share our testimonies of the gospel. Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet.

I will do my best to keep a record here of the spiritual experiences I have and the blessings I notice from God in my life. No promises, but I will try...