Going Home to Stay
Elder Bednar spoke in conference on the theme of the Savior saying “Abide in Me, and I in Thee.”
One of the men in my quorum was pretty touched by it. He said he knew he was supposed to get closer to Christ but it was pretty moving that Christ also wanted to get closer to him. Big truck, soft heart. He said he loves coming home and people meet him at the door, or the little ones run out into the yard.
I thought of that prodigal son painting, where the father has run out onto the road.
I have a particular for thinking that going to heaven will be going home in just that way. In the words of the old song, “we will all come out to greet you when you come.”
When we say “heaven is our home,” we are not primarily making a doctrinal point but a phenomenological one.
E.C.
June 28, 2023
“And the Lord said unto Enoch: . . . righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem.
And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon our necks, and we will kiss each other;
And there shall be mine abode, and it shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall crest.”
– Moses 7: 60-64
The Millennium is, in part, a long homecoming for all of Christ’s lost sheep.
JRL in AZ
June 30, 2023
E.C.: one of my favorite passages of scripture! I love the image of the reunion with hugging and kissing and crying into each other’s necks.
Marilyn
July 13, 2023
I make a personal connection with “coming home” and Heavenly Mother. Our Father too of course! Both running together, I’m sure—but I have this feeling about Heavenly Mother being the one responsible for implanting within every soul a “longing for home.” I don’t know what made me think this…something to do with Elder Holland’s talk on motherhood, and Elder Eyring’s story about the boy who imagined the peace he felt as a child in his mother’s arms, and that leading him back to the gospel. Anyway, it’s something I think about a lot and aspire to as a mother in my own home. Making “home” a place you long to return to. Both heavenly and earthly.
G.
July 14, 2023
Nice, Marilyn