Tag: miracle

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A Miracle to be Seen

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Written by Shanna Glover Wheeler

Traditionally this time of year is a time of reflection for so many people around the world. As my family and I have thought a lot about what the next year will bring, it’s looked a little bit different than it has in the past. You see, something happens when you’re told that you’ve got three to six months left to live. This is not the news I expected to hear at forty-five years old, after a three-year battle with breast cancer. It’s the kind of news that really makes you look long and hard in the mirror. It makes you contemplate your life, the choices you’ve made, and whether or not you’ve used the time you’ve had in ways that will leave a lasting impact on those you love the most.

Time is a funny thing when it’s something you’re running a little short of and it’s a masterful teacher.  It’s taught me a unique perspective. Consequently, my family and I have learned a few lessons over the past few months. I’d love to share some of these with you.

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“Why me?”

As I think back over the past number of years I can see how the Lord has been preparing me to come back home.  Interestingly enough, I’ve seen His hand mostly in helping me prepare my children. My husband and I have ten kids. We’ve adopted eight of them and fostered another forty-two throughout our marriage. All of this has been especially challenging for them as most of my kids have already lost a parent and experienced so much trauma in their lives. Again and again I’ve asked, “Why wouldn’t God want me to be here to help them?Why me? I have more work left to do!” Daily I wrestled with these questions and the concept of needing to give my will to God. 

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Finding Peace

During this period I’d also been spending time at the temple. It was there that I was able to receive peace and was finally able to reconcile my will to His. The Spirit spoke to me and reminded me that I don’t stop being their mother when I’m not here on earth any longer. That fact doesn’t change regardless of which side of the veil I’m on. It was a beautiful reminder that being a wife and mother is what knits together my eternal identity. It’s who I am. Furthermore, my understanding deepened of why God made it possible for families to be eternal. It’s because He loves us! He doesn’t want us to be separated from those we love the most. I’ve felt so grateful for this perspective! I have received so much peace because of it. Continue reading “A Miracle to be Seen”

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Understanding Christ

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Written by Bill Kreiger

Within this past month of last year, we paused to celebrate the birth of a baby boy, Jesus Christ, born over 2000 years ago. What makes this seemingly insignificant event so celebrated? Surely not that the parents were young, maybe too young for our western culture today. Nor that he was born in poverty, for that scene has been repeated over and over. Surely Mary was not the only young expectant mother to be traveling that day. A Whole nation is on the move responding to the demands of government.

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The fact that Jesus Christ’s birth had been talked about since Adam, and spoken of with such anticipation for four millennia’s, must certainly make the world pause and search! Yet when the event happened, few showed up at the scene. On the opposite side of the world, those few who did look for the signs, faced a death sentence if the birth failed to happen. Who would be told that this prophesied child had come? Shepherds doing their duty while watching over their flocks and the birthing of the lambs. Angles and choirs of angels filled the skies singing praises to His name who had come, the very Christ the savior of all mankind, both male and female, bond and free, the wicked and the righteous. A natural, healthy baby boy, born to loving, grateful parents, who were possibly terrified at the prospects of what they had to offer. Who is this Child we know to be the Messiah? Who is this Christ that somehow nearly the entire world He was born into missed the importance of who He is and what he would do? What do we think of Christ?

We know He came to fulfill the great plan of happiness. He came to pay the price demanded by Justice and break the prison doors of death and Hell and the grave. Yet who is He? He came to do so much more. Stories of His short life on earth tells us of his nature and character. What a man thinks, so he does, and what he does tells us of how he thinks. “As a man thinketh, so is he” and “What manner of man aught ye to be?” Even as He is.

Two accounts tell us much:
In Luke 7 we learn of a woman in the community of Nain where Jesus Christ lived, a widow having lost her husband, now weeping for the loss for her only son. By the customs of the day, she is destitute. Not only did she lose a child of her womb, that she loved and cherished but now also gained a remaining existence which would leave her lonely, hungry, and hopeless. Time may heal the loss of her son, but not the daily pain of survival. She is broken. Christ upon entering this scene of a lost son’s burial and a weeping mother, changed it all with one simple act of compassion. There was no judgement here. No accusation of “how could you let this happen?” or “you should have been more mindful.” Just compassion for all. Jesus Christ raised him from his procession to the grave and restored him whole to his mother. Healing not only the son but making whole the mother who also desperately needed a savior.

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Continue reading “Understanding Christ”