the look of hope...

I can't get over the feeling I had when I first saw this painting by Liz Lemon Swindle. Immediately your eyes are drawn beyond the movement of the apostles to the look in their eyes. It is the expression on their faces that Liz Lemon Swindle chose to use as the title of her masterpiece: "HOPE". It stirs within me my own feelings for my Savior. My own hope that I can live my life in a way that is pleasing to my Heavenly Father. That as I utilize the atonement in my life, to right my wrongs and heal my hurts, I will earn a seat at His table and live with Him forever. I love what Ms. Swindle wrote about what inspired her to paint this image:

When Mary came to the tomb, she found the stone rolled away and the tomb empty. She ran to the disciples crying, "They have taken away the Lord…and we know not where they have laid him" (John 20:2). Peter and John immediately ran to the tomb.

What did they think as they ran? Were they simply curious to see for themselves? Did they fear, like Mary, that their enemies had stolen the body? Or did they remember His promise, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"?

The decision that faced Peter and John that Sunday morning is the same decision that faces each one of us today. Will we doubt? Will we hope? Or will we know that He lives? I know that He lives.

And so do I. This Easter weekend I desire to shout from the mountain tops that I know my Savior loves me, understands me, died for me, and lives for me!

"How great, how glorious, how complete,

Redemption's grand design,

Where justice, love, and mercy meet

In harmony divine"

i might not have much to offer, but it is enough.

This week at Youth Conference, each morning we started our day with scripture study and a discussion about what we had read in the second chapter of 2nd Nephi. (One might recognize that chapter from their seminary days, as a well-known scripture mastery can be found in verse 25: "Adam fell that men might be: and men are, that they might have joy.") Much of this chapter addresses the fall, opposition in all things. But it also speaks a good deal of our redemption, which is through the Holy Messiah, Jesus Christ. After we read, one of the young men leaders made a comment that struck me. He referred to the idea that salvation is free unto all. And while it is in a sense, we do pay a price: our effort and our faith. Despite what we are asked to pay, the blessing of the Lord's plan is that we can all afford it.

Verse 7: "Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit..."

The mercy and unconditional love of the Atoning sacrifice of Christ is available to all who are willing to offer in return a heart filled with genuine remorse and a sincere commitment to improve. The Lord has not asked anything of us that we cannot afford to give. I found that comforting to know...I might not have much to offer, but if I do it willingly, "believing in Him", I shall be saved. I can do that, and that's an empowering knowledge to have. It reminds me of the story of the Widow's Mite (Mark 12:41-44). How grateful I am this Sabbath morning to my Savior, that He would accept my meager offering and in return grant me eternal life and happiness.