Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Riches, Powers, and Lives Eternal

Today is the Second Anniversary of my Pancreas transplant. Which also means it's the second anniversary of my donor's death. I've been thinking a lot about him over the last few days. His birthday was on Friday. I read a post about mental illness his Fiance posted and I read through all of the posts his family made about the new baby his brother and sister-in-law named after him. Every day I think about him. If the weather is warm would he be out on his motorcycle? If my kids are busy with work, soccer and school, did he ever have too much to do and not enough time to do it? Did he know it would be the last time he hugged his mom, talked to his dad or kissed his fiance? If I spend too much time focusing on what he's missing, it overwhelms me what I have because of him. I can only imagine the tears and grief his family still experiences at his loss.
In my religious beliefs, there is a firm understanding of the after life. Parts of it I've experienced through my own health problems, my father's death and the loss of my eye sight. You'd be amazed what things beyond this world a blind person can see. As I was thinking of Colby a few days ago I found a quote by Pres, Brigham Young where he spoke to the survivor's of losses of children, in particular. He said;  The hundreds of spirits beyond the veil who've been touched, taught and influenced by the presence of your missed loved one would astound you. Those beings will thank you for the pain and suffering you went through as the bereaved to bless their progression on the other side."
This struck especially close to me because I know that my donor gave 200 bodies here on earth his own body parts  to help all of them. I imagine his spiritual influence on people he loves is even more powerful. While the pain, sorrow and emptiness must be survived by the living, when we are all together again and see what remarkable work our lost loved ones did for God, our moments of suffering will have been worth it. God promises us riches, powers and lives eternal when we obey Him and serve Him here on earth. Lives eternal are not only their life but the lives of loved ones, brothers, sisters, and those people who have passed to the other realm and need our lost loved ones more than we do.
I can't imagine the amount of love our God must have to take one and leave another and know which will be better, but I can imagine a smaller scene that makes sense to me.
If God were to come to me and ask me to leave behind my kids and my husband to save them all in the end, I wouldn't even have to think about it. I'd go immediately.
There isn't enough political, horse, or wealth power in this little world to do that. God has all the power necessary to bring about miracles. Why would we waste time on anything else?