This week in my New Testament class we’re studying the
atonement. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for the blessings of the
atonement. Without the atonement there would be no way we could make it back to
heaven. No eternal families. No life after death. In Alma 7:11-13, it goes over
everything that the atonement encompasses. Not only does the atonement allow us
to repent, but we can use it for comfort and know that everything we experience
Christ experienced as well. And since he experienced it, he knows exactly how
to help us.
My absolute favorite quote goes perfectly with this topic.
It’s all about the atonement and some of the things it covers. It’s really
long, but worth the read!
“We know that Jesus experienced the totality of mortal
existence in Gethsemane. It’s our faith that he experienced
everything—absolutely everything. Sometimes we don’t think through the
implications of that belief. We talk in great generalities about the sins of
all humankind, about the suffering of the entire human family. But we don’t
experience pain in generalities. We experience it individually. That means he
knows what it felt like when your mother died of cancer—how it was for your
mother, how it still is for you. He knows what it felt like to lose the student
body election. He knows that moment when the brakes locked and the car started
to skid. He experienced the slave ship sailing from Ghana toward Virginia. He
experienced the gas chambers at Dachau. He experienced napalm in Vietnam… He
knows about drug addiction and alcoholism…. On a profound level, he understands
about the hunger to hold your baby that sustains you through pregnancy. He
understands both the physical pain of giving birth and the immense joy. He
understands about rape and infertility and abortion… He understands your
mother-pain when your five-year-old leaves for kindergarten, when a bully picks
on your fifth-grader, when your daughter calls to say that the new baby has
Down’s syndrome. He knows your mother’s rage…when someone gives your thirteen-year-old
drugs, when someone seduces your seventeen-year-old. He knows the pain you live
with when you come home to a quiet apartment where the only children are
visitors, when you hear that your former husband and his new wife were sealed
in the temple last week, when your fiftieth wedding anniversary rolls around
and your husband has been dead for two years. He knows all that. He’s been
there. He’s been lower than all that. He’s not waiting for us to be perfect.
Perfect people don’t need a Savior. He came to save his people in their
imperfections. He is the Lord of the living, and the living make mistakes. He’s
not embarrassed by us, angry at us, or shocked. He wants us in our brokenness,
in our unhappiness, in our guilt and our grief.” Chieko Okazaki
The atonement is an unlimited gift we are freely given and
I’m so grateful for that. I have used the enabling
power of the atonement many times and the peace that comes when we use the atonement is
undeniable. I cannot begin to imagine the pain Christ went through and I’m
eternally indebted to him and all that he has done for me. I know that through
the atonement we can repent and become whole again. I know that Jesus is the
Christ. He loves each of us and knows what we need individually. Turn to him
and he will be there. He always is and always will be there no matter what.
