The Atonement of Hope

The Atonement is the most singularly amazing event that has ever occurred in the history of mankind. All other accomplishments that came before or would follow after would be meaningless in its absence. Christ’s sufferings in the Garden, his perfect sacrifice of his life, are so grand in scope that we sometimes lose sight on how personal the Atonement truly is, and we forget one of the greatest gifts that the Atonement has ever given us: Hope.

The Lord’s sacrifice opened up the way for us to return to His presence, gave way to the realization of eternal families, and made our very existences relevant and purposeful. He unlocked the way for us to become like him. There is no measurement in our comprehension that can define all the different ways that He has saved us. It is because of Him that we even have reason to hope. However, just like any other good gift, there is an opposition that we must overcome in order to fully enjoy its blessings. President Faust teaches, “The evil influence of Satan would destroy any hope we have in overcoming our mistakes. He would have us feel that we are lost and that there is no hope.”

Perhaps one of the greatest lies that the Great Deceiver has ever convinced us to believe is that hope is for others, and not for ourselves, or that we are unworthy of that hope. During a hard point in my life, when everything seemed to be going wrong, and I felt as if I had been tossed to the sea without hope of rescue. I felt to cry as the disciples of old “Master, carest thou not that [I] perish?” I received my answer to that question in a most welcome manner. I later recorded my thoughts in a short journal entry, which I shared with you in the previous entry that I posted.

Isaiah cried, “Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” Elder Holland expounded further by stating, “Brothers and sisters, one of the great consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long, lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so”. Christ loved us so much that he “tread the winepress alone” with no other help. He offered up himself as a sacrifice, and took upon us all of our sins, pains, and anguishes, in which he fulfilled the teachings of Alma “that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities”(Alma 7:11) He has suffered everything that we have ever gone through or will go through in order to give us hope of more beautiful days and loving embraces.

When we stumble, and when we fall, Christ is there to pick us back up. I am firmly convinced that the greater sin is not in falling down, but rather in not getting back up once fallen. As Lucy Maud Montgomery penned “isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?” I know that I am not the only one who has suffered, in reality I count myself blessed for the amount of support and patience I have been shown with my trials. Everyone will be confronted with such times when our hope seems too heavy to carry, and we will be tempted to throw it aside. In such times, let us remember the words of Ether: “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place on the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.” (Ether 12:4)

Remember the Lord’s promise that “if [we] humble ourselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” (Ether 12:27, emphasis added) My emphasis in that sentence was intentional to draw to our attention where the action of transforming weak things into strong ones originates. Our duty is to have faith in the Lord, which faith is a principle of action that guides us to better ourselves. If our hearts are in the right place, the Lord will work a mighty miracle in us.

A poem that I have posted earlier in my blog describes the beautiful hope that the Atonement brings:



The wind speaks softly through the trees
A quiet prayer for me to hear
Beneath the emerald canopy of trees
The voice grows quiet as it draws near

It speaks to me of Love’s soft hand
That beckons from a distant land
It whispers silent assurances sweet
Given by one with pierced hands and feet

To feel the raw emotion of passion sinned
And the weight of worthiness thinned
The pain of discouragement and lost hope
When dreams and loves vanish in smoke

One is there who helps to raise up fallen arms
An eternal hope to sustain us through harsh storms
A beacon that guides us with light to come
Over rocks and stones, to bring us safely home.

This is the greatest hope of all, that after all the trials and tribulations, the frivolous mistakes and constant, ongoing repentance, we will be allowed to come back home and be enveloped in that loving embrace that we all yearn for. We have the hope that this life is not the end. John Donne wrote of the end of this life, describing it as “one short sleep past, we wake eternally, and death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.” How closely this mirrors Paul’s exclamation: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” What blessings we have in this Gospel to know of the Hope brought to us by the glad tidings of our Lord’s sacrifice! May we allow that knowledge to draw us closer to our Savior in His love. As Elder Holland said: “This Easter week and always, may we stand by Jesus Christ “at all times and in all things, and in all places that [we] may be in, even until death,” for surely that is how He stood by us when it was unto death and when He had to stand entirely and utterly alone”