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| The Winter Sky |
Our world is so out of control right now with daily reports of upheaval and violence, among other things. Sometimes it feels like we will never again have any order or stability or predictability about anything, and maybe that’s true. A couple of weeks ago I was out on one of my regular nightly walks. As I looked up at the beautiful expanse of our sky and stars I saw that the Winter stars and constellations were much further west as the seasons were changing from Winter to Spring. I felt a little wistful to see those beautiful stars on their way out until next Winter, but I also realized at that moment that these seasonal changes are (ironically) actually one of the things that we can totally rely on in our world today. We know that as Spring arrives the flowers will bloom, the trees will get their leaves back, the grass will grow green. We also know more generally throughout the year that the sun will rise each day, that the moon will go through the same phases each month, and that the same stars we see each season will always return. This was a tender mercy for me to recognize that there is indeed some evidence of constancy in our crazy world. I then thought about another constant: the very creator of this world, Jesus Christ, is our Savior and, in a way we will probably never fully comprehend, his Atonement and Resurrection cover everything, including sin, sorrow, grief, pain, sickness, death, and all other imperfections and injustices. There truly is nothing in this world more constant than that. Just prior to his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, which was also the night before his crucifixion, Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27) The world is clearly in no position to give us any reliable measure of peace right now, so all we really have left is the peace from Jesus made possible through His Atonement and Resurrection; peace that we can feel now through the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful to know of the reality and infinite nature of the Atonement and the peace that we can feel at all times because of that event, and I am so grateful for all the natural beauties and wonders of this world that He created and that remind us of this truth.
