These people mean a lot to me. Like, a lot. I spent the last couple days with them, which was wonderful for me. Their dad (my brother) left last Saturday for Afghanistan, and I thought it might be nice to have one more familiar face around for Easter.
Family is everything. Last week in General Conference, President Packer said "that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, [and] that the plan of redemption, which has been called the plan of happiness, is a plan for families." Everything we are, everything we do, and everything we can become is tied up in our family. "Salvation is a family affair." There is nothing I want more in the whole world than to have my own family.
Before I left this afternoon I was playing a game with my niece Hannah. Somehow pirates had managed to glue my arms in place so that I couldn't move, and they were planning on eating me. All of a sudden Hannah stopped playing, snuggled up in my lap, and said, "Aunt Mary, I don't want the pirates to kill you."
"Neither do I, Hannah. That would be sad."
"Aunt Mary, I don't want the pirates to kill you, but if they do, I'm going to come with you."
"Come with me where, Hannah?"
"I'm going to come with you wherever you go after the pirates kill you, because I would miss you too much and I don't want to miss you. So I'm going to come with you so that you're still in my life."
Even though I highly doubted my imminent death by cannibalistic pirates, I have never in my life been so grateful for the knowledge of eternal families as I was in that moment. For the knowledge that in time and eternity, through good times and bad times and hard times, and in spite of challenges and difficulties and disappointments (and even pirates), that I can be where my family will be forever. That through the gospel of Jesus Christ, my family can be in my (eternal) life forever. Could there possibly be anything more beautiful than that? I think not.
It's all about family.
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