The Condensed Version for Super Busy Moms
(Now with fewer calories!)
The First Cornerstone: Jesus Christ
To Qualify as a cornerstone:
• It must be an eternal principle
• It must support and sustain itself
• It must be sanctioned by Heavenly Father
Jesus Christ, His Atonement, and His Love are the Hub of everything. Yet, accepting and building a relationship with Christ is not an easy thing to do. In order to truly connect with Christ we must accept two very important facts about Him:
1. He is perfect
2. He had a mission of love that was directed to us individually, as much as it was the rest of the world.
As we accept and obey Christ, we will slowly begin to emulate Him. In doing so, we love more perfectly and in turn make more perfect choices.
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Looking To Zion Not-So-Lite
(Full of zest, flavor, and waaay too many calories for our own good!)
The First Cornerstone: Jesus Christ
So, we’re talking about cornerstones. In order to qualify as a cornerstone, there are certain criteria that must be met. I have chosen three, but I suppose we could apply more if there truly is a need to.
The first criterion is probably the most important. A cornerstone must be an eternal principle. We are building Zion to last, therefore its foundation must be built on lasting principles. The second criterion is like the first, in that it must sustain and support itself. A cornerstone that is dependent on outside factors to perform its duty, will not withstand the immense pressures that will be brought to bear against it. The third and final criterion is that they are sanctioned by Heavenly Father. You cannot build the City of God on a foundation that is not endorsed by God Himself. The city would implode without the confidence that these three criteria reinforce.
So, we bring ourselves back to the cornerstones. I mentioned four stones in my last post, one for each cardinal point of the city; Jesus Christ; the trinity of: Faith, Hope, and Charity; the Law of God (both the gospels of long ago and those laws revealed through modern day prophets); and finally the Family.
The first stone is the Savior. His atonement is at the hub of everything, therefore He is the primary cornerstone to build upon. It seems so matter-of-fact, and yet people still question His divinity and their relation to Him. I don’t blame them really. It’s so hard to connect with a perfect being. What worth do you, an imperfect being, could you possibly have in their eyes?
All my life, I’ve struggled with my relationship to the Savior. Heavenly Father, on the other hand, has been very easy to connect with. I believe this to be due to the fact that I grew up with a loving dad, who truly loved me unconditionally. He loved me when I wrecked the car. He loved me when I told him I was going to be an artist (and then chose a really expensive art school full of really strange and unique people to attend). He even loved me when I was angry with him. So, for me, loving and accepting Heavenly Father was a no-brainer.
Accepting Jesus Christ, as a perfect elder brother, was not so easy. There are times that I still find it difficult. But this difficulty comes from ignorance and misunderstanding, more than dislike or disbelief.
In order to truly connect to Jesus Christ, we must accept two very important facts about Him. The first: He is perfect. Some of you, like me, will ask: “How is that even possible?” Trying to embrace such a concept is very difficult, in light of the comparison we must make against our own imperfect lives. Here is how I reconcile this idea of perfection. He chose perfectly in every situation because he was taught to do so by his parents.
I believe Mary and Joseph taught Jesus with divine supervision. Logic states that they had to have heavenly help in order to raise a child who chose perfectly in every situation. They also had to maintain a life style that allowed for that aid to be given. When I think of Mary and Joseph, I feel that the only reason they weren’t taken from the Earth due to their righteousness, was the fact that they had other missions to perform. I freely admit that this is supposition on my part. The scriptures don’t elaborate on the Savior’s childhood, or the challenges he faced growing up. Do I believe Jesus made mistakes? Yes. Shocking I know, but bear with me. Making mistakes is not the same as sinning or transgressing God’s Laws.
As the grandson of a carpenter, I learned at an early age that shaping wood is a process that inevitably leads to many mistakes. It is a craft that takes patience and willingness to learn. I can see Jesus, working alongside Joseph making many small mistakes or miscalculations. But I can also see him learning from them so that He never made the same mistake twice.
Yet, when faced with the choice to sin, Jesus of Nazareth, knew who He was. He’d been taught from an early age, and understood the mission that His Heavenly Father had given Him. In studying his ministry, we can see that there are many times that He could have fulfilled the letter of the law, without having to go the “extra mile” as it were. One specific moment comes to mind: the death of John the Baptist.
The death of dear friend and family member is earth-shattering. For Jesus, who loved His cousin John so dearly, to hear that this beloved family member had been assassinated by a corrupt and evil government…it was a harsh reality. Can you imagine how you would have felt in his place? Set aside the normal pain and loss we feel at the death of a loved one. Now imagine that you lost that person to a deliberate, premeditated, murder by those that were governing you. Is it any wonder that Jesus went off to have some alone time?
But the populace, ignorant of His pain, or perhaps desirous to comfort Him in His hour of need, followed Him. Now if it were me, I would have asked for two or three days to mourn and deal with the feelings that were pressing on me. But what does Jesus do? He sets aside His pain and teaches them. And when He was done, He takes five loaves of bread and two fishes and feeds the multitude - all five thousand men, and an unknown number of women and children.
Jesus was perfect. He was perfect in the choices He made, in His deportment, and in His love.
The second fact we must accept in order to truly connect to Jesus Christ has to do with His love and the mission that He was sent here to accomplish. The Atonement, at the best of times, is difficult to comprehend. There are things about it that I cannot comprehend – the fact that it is a universal and eternal atonement for instance. I’ve wrestled with that for a long time, but I’ve come to the conclusion that as a mortal, with a mortal’s understanding of time, space, and eternity; there is absolutely no way that I can have a perfect understanding of this singular moment in history. I can accept that there are things that I will need to learn in the life to come, and that some answers require patience and long suffering to achieve.
However, there are a couple of things about the Atonement that I do understand, and those give me grounding and a more intimate connection to my Savior.
The first: the Atonement has been planned for since before the Earth was created. If you sit down and calculate all the things that needed to be done and in place, in order to simply allow Jesus the opportunity to be born…well, it’s humbling. Now, take into account all of the careful steps that Heavenly Father needed to take in order to not only prepare His son for the Atonement, but in order to preserve Jesus’ agency. He had to sit back and allow Satan and his angels free reign in abusing, tempting, and conspiring against someone who for all intents and purposes had earned a ticket on the express back to Heaven. He had to allow Jesus to be murdered, under the pretenses of justice. Then He had to turn away from His suffering son, nailed so cruelly to the cross, just long enough for Satan to tempt Jesus one last time, so that True Justice would be appeased. Then after all was said and done, the story of the Atonement was preserved and then distributed to the four corners of the Earth. Why? All, so that we might benefit from the fruits of this singularly unique sacrifice.
The second point about the Atonement is humbling. The Atonement was done for you and me, and every other living being that has or will grace this planet. Some of you may question this. It’s understandable when you sit down and think about the numbers of people involved. How can this act be for me, or how can I be special, when I’m one of a seemingly infinite number of souls? Jesus knew you and me, personally, before we came to this world. He knows us even now. The spirit is eternal; it isn’t bound by our limited perceptions. He may or may not have remembered us during His time in Gethsemane, but He did understand the importance of His mission. He understood that mission and He completed it.
And here’s the kicker: it was all planned and executed for your personal, and individual, benefit.
Isa. 1: 18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
He doesn’t name names, or single out a specific racial profile. He doesn’t designate a specific time period, or limit the benefits of the Atonement to a financial bracket. He paints with a broad brush, and includes all who are willing to “reason together”. The Atonement was meant for all of God’s children.
We cannot build God’s City, without first having an abiding relationship with Him and His son. We cannot know the Father except through the Son, for they are one in spirit and purpose. This is why Jesus is the first cornerstone. Is it hard to accept Jesus? Yes it is. There’s just so much that we don’t really understand about the man, let alone his divine appointment. But the more we learn about Him, the easier it is to see our own importance reflected through His life and teachings. Does it matter that I don’t have a perfect understanding of the science, logic, motive, or eternal repercussions of the miracles He performed or the Atonement itself?
No, there are a lot of things that I don’t understand perfectly. I can’t program my DVD Player perfectly, and I certainly don’t understand my wife perfectly. My children are a mystery to me; and I’m still trying to figure out how our government survives, let alone works. I won’t even broach the math and sciences that elude me. I understand each of them enough to accept them though. I understand their relationship to me, and therefore I’m able to invest more time into learning about them.
In accepting Christ and making Him a cornerstone of Zion, we embrace His perfection and the love He offers us so freely. We can find a haven of confidence and trust in this world of deceit and half-truths in following a perfect guide. And as we follow this perfect guide, and obey His compassionate counsel, we will be uplifted and know that we are loved unconditionally and without pretense. Over time, as we successfully obey, we will see a change slowly take root in our lives. For as we obey and emulate our Savior, we in turn become more like Him. We will love unconditionally, and our choices slowly become more and more perfect.
Until Thursday,
Jeffrey
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