woke up at 6 am, still jet lagged, but I decided I love China Jet Lag. I'm exhausted at 10, and I wake up on my own at 5 or 6. It starts my day beautifully.
It's Sunday here in Beijing. We were planning on meeting in an ex patriot branch today, but the BYU business group is here too, and the numbers of our combined groups would have overwhelmed the branch, so we had sacrament meeting in the hallway of our hotel. It was a little scary since we could be in big trouble having a religous meeting that wasn't contained in a room... but there were doors to the hallway that we closed, so technically... :)
I love changing things up. Sacrament can become so repetative week after week, that I often miss the spirit of the sacred ordinance. Having the sacrament among close friends, in a hotel hallway, in China, definitely changed the repetition, and I focused.
Today I thought a lot about the actual prayer that is said, and I was caught up in a detail contained in the first few lines... " to the souls of ALL....." Obviously there are conditions for the blessings from our heavenly father, but those conditions lie upon us individually. We ALL are promised the opportunity, whether in this life or the next, to hear and be taught the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ALL can have the blessing of baptism, to have the spirit of Christ with us, to take His name upon us and become His.
This became important as I thought of the many people in China who do not yet have the full blessings of the gospel, or even the opportunity to hear and choose to accept or reject this message.
I believe in a true and just God, one who loves all of his children, and with that knowledge, I know that one day the people of China will be taught and given the choice. They too will have the opportunity of accepting the gospel.
Mike Hinkley poinently described the love that a particular chineese couple must have for their one son. The government will only pay for the education of one child per couple in china, thus many couples choose to only have one child. As Mike talked (or tried to talk) to a couple after one of our shows, they kept showing Mike their son, and it struck him how proud they are of this ONE and only son, how they would do anything and everything for him.
I thought about that love of the one, and remembered a talk from a few months ago.
I remember a time I my life when I wasn't sure if I mattered, if I was a One that HE somehow wasn't aware of, or that maybe I didn't deserve Him to really know me.
Many of us probably have times like this... but I know that He is aware of us, and proud of us, and loves us, even more than that chinese couple loves their son.
I don't fully understand that kind of love, but I believe in it... and I'm grateful that I'm reminded of it here in beautiful China.
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