My Easter Thought

Today my mind has been focused especially on the Atonement. Being Easter, the Spirit has reminded me time after time today of the importance, the beauty, and power and influence of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Today I am especially grateful for the suffering that accompanied the Atonement. This has been on my mind a lot these past few months. What would the Atonement have meant for me had there not been suffering? Had there been a way that the effects of the Atonement could have been brought about without the suffering, would it ever had meant anything to me? If Christ had no prints of nails in his hands or feet or side, and therefore didn't literally have my walls before Him continually, would my reuniting with Him at the last day be so sweet? Of course, the fruits of the Atonement - not just the powerful resurrection and the freedom from the sin but also the enabling power, the grace, the succor, and the other beautiful gifts given through the Atonement - are the point of the Atonement. But these eternal and infinite, yet intimate also, gifts have meaning to me in large part because of the price with which they - and I - were bought - a sacred price I don't know I will ever fully comprehend.

“My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever” (Moroni 9:25)

Thinking of His suffering humbles me. It not just makes me grateful, but it changes me. It sanctifies me, gives me hope, and instills a deeper dedication, love, and desire to return to Him in me. I love the words of my old Stake President, Thomas B. Griffith, when he said, "His suffering proves His love, but it does more. It is the means He uses to get us to “repent and come unto him.” When we come to have some sense of what He has done for us—and, in particular, what He has suffered for us—our natural reaction as children of God is to want to show our gratitude and love by obeying Him."

So today I am grateful not just for the Atonement of Jesus Christ - for His unfathomable love, His obedience to the Father, the wonderful gifts made possible through His great sacrifice, for the many roles He plays in my life - but I am also grateful for the suffering that gives meaning to the price He paid for me.