Who so singularly loves us

This post is part of the General Conference Odyssey. This week covers the Sunday Morning Session of the October 2003 Conference.

I'm late posting this week, Christmas week, so I'll just leave you with a quote from one of my favorite talks of all time—Elder Holland's beautiful talk on God the Father.

That single, riveting scene [of God weeping over the world] does more to teach the true nature of God than any theological treatise could ever convey. It also helps us understand much more emphatically that vivid moment in the Book of Mormon allegory of the olive tree, when after digging and dunging, watering and weeding, trimming, pruning, transplanting, and grafting, the great Lord of the vineyard throws down his spade and his pruning shears and weeps, crying out to any who would listen, “What could I have done more for my vineyard?”

What an indelible image of God’s engagement in our lives! What anguish in a parent when His children do not choose Him nor “the gospel of God” He sent! How easy to love someone who so singularly loves us!…

Jesus did not come to improve God’s view of man nearly so much as He came to improve man’s view of God and to plead with them to love their Heavenly Father as He has always and will always love them. The plan of God, the power of God, the holiness of God, yes, even the anger and the judgment of God they had occasion to understand. But the love of God, the profound depth of His devotion to His children, they still did not fully know—until Christ came.

So feeding the hungry, healing the sick, rebuking hypocrisy, pleading for faith—this was Christ showing us the way of the Father, He who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, long-suffering and full of goodness.” In His life and especially in His death, Christ was declaring, “This is God’s compassion I am showing you, as well as that of my own.”…

I bear personal witness this day of a personal, living God, who knows our names, hears and answers prayers, and cherishes us eternally as children of His spirit. I testify that amidst the wondrously complex tasks inherent in the universe, He seeks our individual happiness and safety above all other godly concerns.

I loved this talk when I first heard it. But I didn't, couldn't, feel the truth of it half as powerfully before having the experiences I've had in the last 20 years; before having children of my own whom I have loved and cried over and feared for and often failed. My great and only hope rests in the love of our Heavenly Father and His perfect plan and His perfect son. Because of Them, all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. I am so grateful for that truth!