Our six-year-old grandson, Oli, who affectionately calls
me "Poppy," had to get something from the car.
His dad stood inside the house and, without Oli being aware,
unlocked the car door remotely as he approached it, then
locked it again when he was done.
Oli then ran inside with a big smile.
All the family asked him, "How did you get the door to unlock
for you, then to lock again?" He just smiled.
Our daughter, his mother, said, "Maybe it's like when
Poppy does it.
Maybe you have magic powers like him." When it happened
the second time a few minutes later, his response to further
questions about his newfound abilities was, "It's amazing!
I think it's because Poppy loves me and is one of my best
friends, and he takes care of me."
I've been blessed to know of truly miraculous things that
have occurred in the lives of faithful Saints throughout
Africa, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, and
the islands of the Pacific.
I agree with Oli.
I think it's because those faithful people feel the same
way about Heavenly Father and the Savior as
Oli feels about me.
They love God as a close friend, and He
takes care of them.
Members of this Church are entitled to, and many receive,
a spiritual witness and make sacred covenants
to follow the Lord.
Yet despite that, some move towards Him
while others do not.
In which category are you?
God should be the center of our universe, our literal
focal point.
Is He?
Or is He sometimes far from the thoughts and intents of
our hearts?
Notice that it's not just the thoughts of our hearts that
are important, but the intents.
How do our behavior and actions reflect the integrity
of our intents?
Our son, Ben, when he was 16 and speaking in stake
conference, asked the question, "How would you feel
if someone promised you something every week and never
kept the promise?" He continued, "Do we take
seriously the promise we make when we partake of the
sacrament and covenant to keep His commandments and always
remember Him?" The Lord gives us ways to help remember Him
and His sustaining powers.
One way is through that common lot we all share--adversity.
As I look back at the trials I've faced, it's clear that
they've resulted in my growth, understanding, and empathy.
They've drawn me closer to my Heavenly Father and His Son
with experiences and refining engraved into my heart.
His guidance and instruction are essential.
He helped the faithful brother of Jared by solving one of his
two challenges when He told him how to get fresh air into
the barges that had been faithfully built.
But, pointedly, the Lord not only left temporarily unsolved
the challenge of how to provide light, but He then
made it clear that He, the Lord, would allow the
buffetings and trials that necessitated its solving.
He it would be who would send forth the winds, the rains,
and the floods.
Why would He do that?
And why does He warn any of us to remove ourselves from a
source of danger when He could simply stop
the danger from happening?
President Wilford Woodruff told the story of being
spiritually warned to move the carriage that he, his wife,
and child slept in, only to discover that a whirlwind
shortly thereafter uprooted a large tree and dropped it
exactly where the carriage had previously stood.
In both of these instances, the weather could have been
adjusted to eliminate the dangers.
But here's the point: rather than solve the problem
Himself, the Lord wants us to develop the faith that will
help us rely upon Him in solving our
problems and trust Him.
Then we can feel His love more constantly, more powerfully,
more clearly, and more personally.
We become united with Him, and we can become like Him.
For us to be like Him is His goal.
In fact, it is His glory as well as His work.
A young boy was trying to smooth out the dirt area
behind his house so he could play there with his cars.
There was a large rock obstructing his work.
The boy pushed and pulled with all his might, but no matter
how hard he tried, the rock wouldn't budge.
His father watched for awhile, then came to his son and said,
"You need to use all your strength to move a rock this
large." The boy responded, "I have used all my strength!"
His father corrected him: "No, you haven't.
You haven't had my help yet!" They then bent down together
and moved the rock easily.
The father of my friend Vaiba Rome, Papua New Guinea's first
stake president, was also taught that he could turn to
his Father in Heaven in times of need.
He and his fellow villagers could survive only through the
crops they grew.
One day he lit a fire to clear his portion of the village
farmland for planting.
However, it had been preceded by a long hot period, and the
vegetation was very dry.
So his fire became of the President Monson variety, as
our prophet himself described at the last general
conference.
It began to spread to the grassland and bushes, and, in
the words of his son, "a big monster of fire" resulted.
He feared for his fellow villagers and the possible
loss of their crops.
If they were destroyed, he would be
subject to village justice.
Being unable to extinguish the fire, he then
remembered the Lord.
I now quote from his son, my friend:
"He knelt on the hill in the bushes and started to pray to
Heavenly Father to stop the fire.
Suddenly there appeared a big black cloud above where he was
praying, and it rained so hard, but only where the fire
was burning.
When he looked around, there was clear sky everywhere
except where the flames burnt.
He couldn't believe the Lord would answer a simple man like
him, and he again knelt down and cried like a child.
He said it was the sweetest feeling."
Our Savior wants us to really love Him to the point that we
want to align our will with His.
We can then feel His love and know His glory.
Then He can bless us as He wants to.
This happened to Nephi the son of Helaman, who reached the
stage where the Lord trusted him implicitly and, because of
that, was able to bless him with all that he asked.
In Life of Pi, the fictional book by Yann Martel, the hero
voices his feelings about Christ: "I couldn't get Him
out of my head.
Still can't.
I spent three solid days thinking about Him.
The more He bothered me, the less I could forget Him.
And the more I learned about Him, the less I wanted to
leave Him."
That's exactly how I feel about the Savior.
He's always near, especially in sacred places
and in times of need.
And sometimes, when I least expect, I feel almost like He
taps me on the shoulder to let me know He loves me.
I can return that love in my own imperfect way by giving
Him my heart.
Just a few months ago, I sat with Elder Holland as he
assigned missionaries to their missions.
As we left, he waited for me, and as we walked, he draped
his arm around my shoulder.
I commented to him on his doing the same thing once
before in Australia.
He said, "That's because I love you!" And I
knew that was true.
I believe that if we could have the privilege of walking
physically with the Savior, that we would feel His arm
draped over our shoulder just like that.
Like the disciples heading towards Emmaus, our hearts
would "burn within us." This is His message: "Come and
see." It is personal, inviting, and embracing in its
invitation to walk with His arm around our shoulders.
May we all feel as confident as Enos, as reflected in the
last verse of his short but profound book: "I rejoice in
the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall
stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure,
and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is
a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father."
Because of the multiplicity of experiences and the power with
which the Spirit has witnessed to me, I testify with absolute
surety that God lives.
I feel His love.
It is the sweetest feeling.
May we do what is needed to align our will with His and
truly love Him.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.