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?
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