Ready to enjoy the glory

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Welfare Session of the April 1978 Conference.

As I was reading through the talks from the April 1978 Welfare Session, I knew immediately which quote I wanted to write about. It stuck out to me above everything else. But I've spent all week trying to figure out WHY I was so moved by it, and I still don't quite know. I thought maybe it was because it's about looking forward with hope, but sometimes when I read it, it seems more about disappointment than about hope. So maybe I like it because it encompasses everything at once: the difficulty of mortality, the stumbles, but also the glory that will follow. Or maybe I like it because I want so much to believe in the beauty and glory of the future, and this reminds me that the glimpses I've had of that beauty and glory—no matter how immediately they seem to be followed by uncertainty and second-guessing and confusion and distraction—are real. Anyway, here is the quote (from Elder J. Richard Clarke, quoting Brigham Young):

“If any of you had a vision of Zion, it was shown to you in its beauty and glory after Satan was bound. … You did not see a vision of driving cattle across the plains and where you would be mired in this or that mudhole. You did not see the stampedes among the cattle, and those of a worse character among the people. 

“But you saw the beauty and glory of Zion that you might be encouraged and prepared to meet the afflictions, sorrows and disappointments of this mortal life and overcome them and be made ready to enjoy the glory of the Lord as it was revealed to you.”

As I write this on Christmas Eve, I'm thinking about the glory of the Lord, and wondering what Isaiah had in mind when he said that glory would "be revealed." The birth of Christ, revealed to shepherds and wise men and Nephites thousands of years ago? The resurrected Christ, revealed to "all flesh together" when He comes again? The visions prophets have seen, where the plan of salvation is unfolded and laid before them like a grand story? Probably it is all of those—but I like to think maybe he also meant the glory we see revealed in tiny pieces as we walk these rough roads, flashes of light that come but are almost immediately gone again. Sunsets, babies, skies and stars; moments of understanding between friends, phrases of music that catch us by surprise. That small, accumulated glory that encourages us to keep walking, keep watching, hoping to see more of it.

Other posts in this series:

• Boyd K. Packer and The Relief Society by Jan Tolman