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Ellen Simper C. L. Farnsworth |
Orphaned Matter Ellen Simper Recently, on an ordinary errand I drove on the road between two small country towns. I absently observed two pieces of clothing haphazardly left on the roadway; appearing that they had been discarded. In another 100 yards, there were three or more pieces of clothing, another span of road presented another two pieces and then an identifiable article, a rumpled sock. It was a source of wonder and curiosity as to why those things happened to be out on the road at this particular time. Had someone thrown them out in a mad tantrum? Had someone been teasing/provoking, but the clothing was not worth going back for? Was someone unaware of the loss? Finding one item along the road is not unusual, but six or eight pieces seemed perplexing. As a teenager, I lost half of a beloved pair of shoes, blown out a car window. A friend had given them to me used, but I was particularly fond of their sleek look, the nice click they made on a floor. I was with several teenagers in a back seat, being driven by my father, an hour’s time to a church dance. Laughing and passing time in idle banter, we had opened car windows for some silly reason, when loose belongings in the back window shuffled around, my shoe being the casualty in teenagers’ irresponsible antics. I was very sorry for the loss. My four year old daughter, one summer left twelve pair of shoes at the city park located across the street from her growing up house. They were an assortment of last year’s flip-flops, old hand-me-down’s and a pair or three of newish discount store bargains. The two requirements to be allowed to go over to the park are the accompaniment of an older sibling and the wearing of shoes. Since twelve of those return trips were made barefoot, the requirement of footwear renders that stricture a hollow demand, regardless of how many old wive’s tales caution about the picking up of worms, glass and dread diseases. What went through the thoughts of the child or mother who finding stray shoes, carried them home? Did they wonder at their orphaned state or did they just consider it their good fortune? Perhaps each time it was the same child or mother thinking “well, the shoe fairy has left us another gift!” A pair of pink tennis shoes, laces tied together at the very ends, resides at present on an electrical line high above the busy sand lot of this same neighborhood park, an obvious act performed by perhaps a willful older sibling, a defiant acquaintance, a jokester of some sort. Maybe the shoe fairy aimed too high. My father was a natural collector of road side objects, an out-of-place item was always worth a turn around trip back to see what it was. More often than not, he would pick it up and take it home like the characters from The Borrowers who lined their burrows with their treasured finds. His property was like a large burrow, the treasured finds finding their way to piles of things that were put to use at times, other times merely adding texture to what was like a scrap iron graveyard. The tendency to do likewise seems to be genetic, inherited by myself and my siblings. I have succumbed to picking up more than a few assorted treasures. Once on a traverse along the same between small towns road, there was what looked like several boxes of foodstuffs. Upon further investigation, it was found to be about 3 dozen boxes of perfectly good crackers which I loaded into the car and took home, much to the disbelief of my children. The crackers were used with thanksgiving and even shared with other friends **; and didn’t add texture to any piles.** cracker manna About such abandoned objects, there is always a mysterious element, an untold story dispersed in particles of air, never to be rounded up for clarification of events. Many surmisings can be made, undoubtably more interesting than the real circumstances of the abandoned matter. “If walls could talk” or roadways, for that matter.... The road of life is strewn with objects. Often these objects are obstacles and can be formidable in their size and impact. There are times when each of us has felt like orphaned matter, discarded along the roadside. The feeling of abandonment comes when struggles and trials of life feel too much to sustain, too intense to bear. The factor of loss can create the feeling of abandonment, the loss of a mother or father, the loss of relationships, any number of losses in life’s situations. Losing a parent, even years after the fact can engender feelings so poignant as to bring tears with the soggy plot development of a Disney movie. Many situations which seemed traumatic at the time, rejection from school yard inmates, the many hurts that occur in childhood, the loss of esteem in various situations are those circumstances in growing up that can strengthen character or render a person a bitter cynic. God has promised compensation for loss and for sorrow, that for which we feel slighted. The atonement of Jesus Christ is the gift that covers all, a supreme gift of grace and mercy which cannot be paid for at any price in our finite imagination. For behold, the Lord shall come, and his recompense shall be with him, and he shall reward every man, and the poor shall rejoice. D&C 56:19 The greatest example of God’s love for his children is found in the infinite
atonement of Jesus Christ. Love for God includes devotion, adoration, reverence,
tenderness, mercy, forgiveness, “It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by his atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life. It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts. Recognizing the blessing of the Atonement and strengthening our testimonies of Christ and of his sacrifice will lead us to a full and complete repentance. Doing so will replace pain with peace and give us perspective on how and when to look back.” – Resources, www.lds.org Elder Jon Fish relates a short exchange in a teaching moment. “I once heard a
mother counsel her confused child on making a difficult decision. ‘How do I know what
to do?’ he asked. Elder Boyd K. Packer in discussing the impact of the atonement talks about our debt to the Savior. “Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us. And, by eternal law, mercy cannot be extended save there be one who is both willing and able to assume our debt and pay the price and arrange the terms for our redemption. Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untempered, unsympathetic, must, positively must fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing. But know this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim. 2:5.) Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. This truth is the very root of Christian doctrine. You may know much about the gospel as it branches out from there, but if you only know the branches and those branches do not touch that root, if they have been cut free from that truth, there will be no life nor substance nor redemption in them. – Boyd K. Packer, “The Mediator,” Ensign, May 1977 Two experiences have illustrated for me in very small ways the feeling of not having the Savior’s gift of mediation in our lives, of our need to do all we can to merit his gift. Near the end of a temple endowment session, actually waiting in the Terrestrial room, the media equipment was halted. “Due to technical difficulties” our literal earthly progress was interrupted and we remained in the limbo of middle level attainment. We were able to spend meditative time while we waited in the crystal white quiet of that beautiful and serene place. A friend sitting next to me observed that this felt like a important lesson to be learned as we were “stuck in the Terrestrial World” as a reward for our particular behavior in this mortal testing period. She said it was a wake up to call to strive more fervently for the higher kingdom and not to settle for a Terrestrial life. Another friend related an experience which had sharply impacted her thinking about the atonement. She had borrowed a very nice purple blouse from her sister but had spilled an oily substance on the sleeve. She had felt confident that she could remove the stain with some handy, cleaning product she had used many times in the past, but forgot caution with color factors and the more harsh chemicals of the cleanser. She used an old toothbrush and scrubbed the stain and then applied what she should have applied first and only, a good, reliable laundry liquid. To her horror, the color of the sleeve changed dramatically. With heavy remorse she confessed her sin to her sister who was graciously understanding and forgiving, but also very disappointed in the returned state of her favorite blouse. Because an attempt to replace the blouse was unsuccessful and other ways of remedying the problem were unsatisfactory, my friend was even more saddened by her grievous error. It felt like a very sad, unsolvable disaster even though in earthly terms her sister had said “it’s only clothes, only materialistic, not a problem.” It was a tangible illustration of the Savior’s gift to us of something we can’t do for ourselves. Even if we say we are willing to pay for our own sins, the price may be much higher than we will be able to bear and probably completely unattainable. The remorse we feel at times is but a tiny particle of what it would take to cleanse us, something perhaps we are not strong enough to give even in the least amount. Another analogy from this parable of the purple blouse is that our own confidence in our abilities to fix things should be replaced with God’s commandments to “trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.” – Prov. 3:5 “And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.” --Moro. 7: 41 We have been told that the gifts we have been offered, the commandments we have been given are for our greatest benefit, but have to be followed and proved in this testing period of our mortal probation. We can not take for granted the standards and behaviors expected of us. Only in giving our will over to Heavenly Father, studying his word, keeping his commandments can we merit the opportunity to be cleansed every whit and to be raised in exaltation. “Be faithful until I come, for I come quickly; and my reward is with me to recompense every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.” – D&C 112: 34 “But God ceaseth not to be God, and mercy claimeth the penitent, and mercy cometh because of the atonement; and the atonement bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead; and the resurrection of the dead bringeth back men into the presence of God; and thus they are restored into his presence, to be judged according to their works, according to the law and justice.” – Alma 42: 23 Indeed, we are NOT orphaned matter. We are literally children of God, destined for greatness if we but learn what we should do. We have leading and guiding from scriptures and inspired brothers and sisters. Ours is the task of enduring in righteousness. The words of the familiar Primary song should be observed more closely with careful thought. “I am a child of God and he has sent me here, has given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear. I am a child of God; rich blessings are in store if I but learn to do his will, I’ll live with him once more. I am a child of God. His promises are sure. Celestial glory shall be mine if I can but endure. Lead me, guide me, walk beside me. Help me find the way. Teach me all that I must do, to live with Him someday.” |
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