And it came to pass

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It is truly interesting to see when you have eyes to see. The Lord really is mindful of all of us. His tender mercies abound around us. You just need eyes to see them.

I know the Lord is mindful of me.  He’s been sending choice people across my path, people who say what I need to hear and share ideas I need to consider.  And with everything I’ve been experiencing lately, there’s a lot I need to hear and to consider.

The Lord always sends light to those who reach after it.  He ordained the dawn to follow the night, and the dawn always comes.

And now a new dawn is breaking for me.  Nothing in my life has physically changed.  But my perspective and the way I see my world and my current situation has changed substantially.

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It always did come to pass

Mark Twain once criticized the Book of Mormon in part because the phrase and it came to pass appears very frequently.  In writing his history of the Nephite nation, Mormon constantly uses this phrase to tell us about the events that occurred among his people and their ancestors. We find this same phrase in the Bible, so its use to convey happenings isn’t confined to just one continent.

I have to admit that until recently I never gave that phrase all that much thought.  But not anymore.  Now I see it as a great testament of God’s love for the wonderful message that it carries.

Everyone has trials and hardships in life.  That’s a part of life for everyone, no matter the time or place.  So the events that Mormon recounts from the history of his people were fundamentally no different than the events that happen in the lives of us all.  We all experience sadness, heartache, loneliness, and pain.

Yet in each and every one of those cases, Mormon records “and it came to pass.”  Think about that for a moment.  Those events, whatever they were, did not come to stay.  They came to pass.

And so it is in all of our lives.  The events we experience, trying though they may be, never come to stay.  They always pass on with the continual motion of time.  Day always follows night which always follows day.  The events we experience in mortality, as bad as they seem, never come to stay.  They always come to pass.

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And it always will come to pass

It’s been almost three years since my dear friend Tashi was taken from me.  I still miss her terribly.  At times I wish she were still with me.  Then she could walk into my lap as she used to do and look up at me as if to say, “What’s wrong? How can you be sad when I’m here with you?”

That day she died I felt like dying too.  A sadness as I had never known enveloped me, and for many hours all I could do was cry in my grief.  Slowly with the passing of time, those emotions subsided, though I still grieve for my cat.  As I said, I still miss her terribly.  But the overwhelming emotions that engulfed me the day she died are no longer with me.  They came, not to stay, but to pass.

And so it has been with every negative and trying moment in my life.  All of them came into my life, and none of them came to stay.  They all came to pass.  And thus it will be with every tribulation we might experience.  They won’t come to stay.  They will come to pass.

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We choose our end

Newsflash: In the end, we all make it to the end.  The only question is what that end will be.  That’s because where we end up depends on how we choose to confront the difficulties of life that come to pass in our lives.

Will we cower in the corner in a pitiful clod of despair, slaves to fear and hopelessness?  Or will we rise above our challenges with faith and the confidence that God is still in control of His universe, the same universe in which we are living?

Mormon’s constant repetition of and it came to pass emphasizes the transient nature of our trials.  They never come to stay.  They always come to pass.  One moment is bad, but the next is always good.  Spring always follows winter.  Day always follows night.  And it’s always darkest just before the dawn.

Whatever trials you may be experiencing in your life, remember that they never come to stay.  They always come to pass.  So let them pass, and look to brighter and glorious days ahead in your future.

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