This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the October 1992 Conference.
Elder Marion D. Hanks talked about some things he had learned from other religions. I thought this insight from Jewish tradition was sweet:
Jewish tradition helps us further appreciate the nature of our Heavenly Father in the tender practice of the Half Hallels offered at Passover in celebration of the historic exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt and their passing through the Red Sea. When they reached the sea, the pursuing Egyptian armies overtook them. Through Moses, God divided the waters, “And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground.” The Egyptians went in after them. Then Moses stretched his hand again over the sea, and the waters returned. The Israelites were safe, and the Egyptian armies were drowning. Triumphantly the people began to sing hymns of praise to the Lord. But the Almighty stopped them and said, “How can you sing hymns of praise and jubilation when so many of my children are drowning in the sea?”In remembrance of that event, Jewish people during the latter period of Passover include abridged or shortened psalms of praise, Half Hallels, as part of the celebration.
I confess I had never thought of the Egyptians drowning in the Red Sea as anything but a triumph until I watched "Prince of Egypt." Then it occurred to me that God did love the Egyptian armies, too! It's strange to think of His love extending to the very "enemies" he helps us fight against! But it's a good reminder that I should seek for that same love.
This gave me a big lump in my throat. I don’t know! Just thinking of having to, as a parent, allow harsh things to happen to some of your children to protect others. And so touching to realize he didn’t just NOT love these other children.
ReplyDeleteOne of the hardest moments of my life was deciding I had to pray for the birth-mother of my precious foster daughter. As a family, we prayed for her to turn her life around and succeed. For 2 years, she did not, and we grew simultaneously hopeful that we could make our girl a permanent part of our family and sad that Birthmom was failing. It was hard to pray for her every single time. I was selfish enough that I wanted our girl in our family--not Birthmom's. I had to force myself to say the words and try to feel feelings of love and compassion. In the long run, Birthmom did turn her life around, and our girl had to leave us. (I have permanent trauma from that experience. And how, how is our little girl doing?) It took me years and years to realize that our prayers were answered in the affirmative by a loving Heavenly Father. He does love ALL of His children. And we have to, too.
ReplyDeleteWhoa. That is an amazing story! I almost can't believe you were able to pray for that hard, hard thing. It really is so hard for me to grasp--God's universal love. I have prayed to understand it, but I think it's still something maybe you can only know through the help of the spirit. I hope someday you get to see the full picture of how important your part was in your sweet foster daughter's life.
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