Get Ye Up into the High Mountain, O Zion
by Minerva Teichert, 1949
Last week baby Afton Jean Bigler passed away. It broke my heart. I'm not totally up to date on blogs, as I'm most importantly a missionary, not a blogger-- but this is one that I've tried to keep up with. I've read NoBiggie since before my mission. I remember when Kami shared her struggles with infertility. I remember the joy I felt when I found out that she was pregnant, and that the baby was doing okay! And I was shaken to the core when I logged onto blogger one day to see two new posts from Kami-- one about Afton being born, and another about Afton's death. But I know, as Kami knows, that families can be together forever. That is such a key principle of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's what pulls me through the tough times-- the hope and knowledge that we can be together forever with the people who matter most to us.
It is also such a comfort to know that God has a plan for each of us, His children. Afton needed to be on this earth as long as she was, but she just has work to do elsewhere. God has a bigger plan for her than we can understand.
Seeing even a glimpse of an eternal perspective is incredible. There are so many people who just wander through life, not knowing why they are here, how to live now, and where they are going after this life. Hard times just come and go. My friends, there is more.
In times of hardship, I am reminded of the early pioneers. Because of religious persecution, they traveled hundreds of miles across the plains to establish and settle in Salt Lake City, Utah. They faced unimaginable trials because they knew that this gospel was true, and they had already found the eternal peace that such a truth provides.
A glimpse of their hardships, sacrifice, and subsequent blessings is found in the book Daughters in My Kingdom:
At the October 1856 general conference [in Salt Lake City, Utah], President Brigham Young announced that handcart pioneers were stranded hundreds of miles away. He declared: “Your faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now on the plains, and attend strictly to those things which we call temporal, or temporal duties, otherwise your faith will be in vain.”
Sister [Lucy Meserve] Smith recorded in her autobiography that after President Young’s exhortation, those in attendance took action to provide relief for their brothers and sisters. Women “stripped off their petticoats [large underskirts that were part of the fashion of the day and that also provided warmth], stockings, and every thing they could spare, right there in the Tabernacle, and piled [them] into the wagons to send to the Saints in the mountains.”
They continued to gather bedding and clothing for Saints who would arrive with only a few belongings in small handcarts. Sister Smith wrote: “We did all we could, with the aid of the good brethren and sisters, to comfort the needy as they came in with handcarts late in the fall. … As our society was short of funds then, we could not do much, but the four bishops could hardly carry the bedding and other clothing we got together the first time we met. We did not cease our exertions [un]til all were made comfortable.” Sister Smith said that when the handcart companies arrived, a building in the town was “loaded with provisions for them.”
This gospel is truly the gospel of happiness. Despite the pain, sadness, and uncertainty that this life certainly brings, we have hope in our Savior, and a firm knowledge that He has already provided a way for us to repent of our sins, be clean, and return to live with our Heavenly Father again. We can endure life's trials because we understand God's plan, and that there is more to this life. We can endure life's trials because we know that we are children of our Heavenly Father, who loves us. All is well, all is well!
