Many thanks to Pauline Colton for sharing this beautiful watercolor painting with us. Below, she shares some of her thoughts about the painting, and a few of the many scriptures that came to mind as she was working on this piece. We first shared this in 2009 but the image was not accessible. We figured it was a great opportunity to re-share. Please note the image is copyrighted, and shared with permission. More information below.

Alma 37:6 “Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.”

The greatest of all the gifts of God is His Son. Christ willingly and lovingly makes the blessings, the healing and the power of the atonement available to each of us. Only by small and simple means can I be in a position to partake of the atonement.

As I worked on the drawing and design of this piece, I had many scriptures come to mind. By taking note of each scripture as I recalled it, I ended up with six pages of scriptures. I categorized the scriptures by elements in the painting. Here, I include only one reference for each category:

1. Being partakers – Alma 5:62

2. Fruit – 1 Nephi 8:10-12

3. Tree – Revelation 2:7

4. Oil – D&C 33:16-17

5. Support for the lamp – Isaiah 41:10

6. Drop by drop – Deut 32:2

7. Light of the World – John 8:12

8. Light of Christ given to man – D&C 84:45-46

9. Clay lamp – Isaiah 64:8

10. Being invited – Revelation 3:20

<font=size=”1″>Copyright Pauline Colton. Picture may be reproduced and used for for personal, non-profit use.</font=size=”1″>

The post “Be Partakers” – a watercolor painting about oil in our lamps, the light of Christ, the tree of life, and more appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

A friend of mine shared some thoughts that have gotten me thinking.

She talked about how much she loves nature. She and her husband love to take walks outside (when they were younger, they hiked a lot). As for so many of us, she finds being in nature soothing to her soul.

For those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, He is found in nature. He is the Creator of the earth. He is the Creator and source of light in sun, moon, and stars. The peace we can find among His creations is His peace.

My friend built on this idea and made a spiritual connection to the notion of the tree of life. She explored the idea of staying at the tree — like the one mentioned in the Book of Mormon in Lehi’s vision of the tree of life.

The tree there represents Jesus Christ. To stay at the tree — to be a tree-hugger spiritually — is to stay by Jesus. That vision given to Lehi has many elements to it, and staying at the tree is one of the key protections against things like mocking voices and the shame that can come from listening to them. (I think about how easy it is to listen to shame from hamster-wheel thoughts in my own mind; I don’t need external mocking voices to feel toxic shame. Keeping Jesus close in my thoughts can help, especially when I remember that His voice is one of love and care and gentleness.)

Reflecting on my friend’s thoughts made me think of John 15 (see also Isaiah 27) about Jesus being the true vine. To truly stay by the tree is to be connected to Him as the Source of life (both now and forever). He is the Source of breath for our bodies. He is the One who makes resurrection possible for us all. His life as the True Vine showed us the Way, and His death (on a tree, as it is sometimes said) and resurrection made the Way for us to be forgiven and someday to return back to our Heavenly Parents.

My friend also talked about her love of family history. More trees to hug! I, too, love doing family history and discovering more about my family tree, and helping use the wonders of technology to build family trees in tools like FamilySearch and Ancestry. When I do family history, I feel like I sometimes can get a glimpse of how personally each of us is known to God. Even in a few records, I can learn more about a person — what they looked like, what their profession might have been, perhaps where they lived and how they died. When I find someone in the records who hasn’t yet been represented on a family tree, sometimes I stop and just say their name out loud. “I see you.” I sometimes wish I could give them a hug! But helping their stories be told feels like a way to show love for them. These people are not dead to God, and building family trees in records helps me remember that. Like in the Disney movie Coco (about el Día de los Muertos — a movie about family history!), they need not be dead to us. We benefit when we remember them and tell their stories (and let records help us do that).

For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, building family trees in records also connects us to the temple. My friend talked about this, too — about the peace she finds in the rootedness of the temple. In the temple, sacred ordinances are performed to bind families together. The crowning ordinance performed therein is called the sealing ordinance — where husband and wife can be married for time and eternity — not just “until death do us part.” The authority to bind families together in this way was committed to Joseph Smith shortly after the dedication of the Kirtland temple when Elijah the prophet — the one who spoke anciently of hearts of fathers turning to children and children to fathers — came (just as other ancient leaders had done earlier to restore the power to baptize (John the Baptist) and to confirm the Holy Ghost (Peter, James, and John).

Once people receive temple ordinances for themselves (some of them symbolic of ordinances received in ancient times), then we can act as “proxies” for those who have passed on. In a favorite film of mine, called “The Mountain of the Lord,” President Wilford Woodruff is portrayed speaking to a newspaper reporter, who scoffed a bit at this idea of doing proxy work for the dead. I like how President Woodruff’s response to the reporter was represented.

“Many people believe in some form of vicarious work for the dead. The Atonement of Jesus Christ was a vicarious work. Whoever accepts Jesus as the Savior also accepts the principle of vicarious proxy.”

Since these ordinances require a physical body, we who have physical bodies act as proxy for those who do not have bodies anymore, as death separates body and spirit until the time of resurrection. And then those who have had ordinances performed on their behalf have the opportunity to choose to accept or reject them.

You can learn more about Jesus’ visit to the spirit world after His death (as referred to in 1 Peter 3:18-19), in Doctrine and Covenants 138.)

I love patterns and symbols, and appreciated my friend’s invitation to think about trees today, and all the many ways I can be a tree hugger.

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~by Michelle

Truths about God’s love and His plan and His Son Jesus Christ are truths that even children can comprehend. Today, a children’s song came to mind that carries with it this kind of beautiful simplicity — and also points to so many layers of awe-inspiring truths.

This song talks about how we all lived with God before this life. We were given the opportunity to choose whether or not we wanted to come to earth and receive bodies and learn by experience through this mortal journey. We knew Jesus before this life, because He was central to God’s plan to allow us the opportunity to come back Home.

In this life, we have an opportunity to choose God’s plan and to choose to have faith in Jesus — again.

The song reminds me of William Wordsworth’s poem, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood.” (I’d never seen the whole poem before; I recommend reading it in its entirety.)

Wordsworth was an English poet who was born in the later 18th century. His poem articulates this sense that our existence didn’t start here, but that

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,

                      Hath had elsewhere its setting,

                         And cometh from afar:

                      Not in entire forgetfulness,

                      And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

                      From God, who is our home:

Wordsworth also acknowledges that as we grow older, experiences of life can leave us forgetting, growing blinded to our divine identity evidences of Light all around us.

But we don’t have to walk blind, in the dark. We can, as the scriptures say, be as little children.

As these children sing, we can “Choose Him Again.”

[Song written by Shawna Edwards and performed by One Voice Children’s Choir]

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Last night, I watched last year’s “Christmas with The Chosen” again, and I’m excited that tonight is the night that the 2021 “Christmas with The Chosen” livestream event is happening.

The Chosen took their Christmas special first to theaters this year. The director and producers of The Chosen hoped to at least be able to sustain two days’ presence in theaters (only one showing per day), but the record-breaking response has extended the time “Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers” will be in theaters: until December 16. [Edit to that…it looks like it will be running in some places all the way through Christmas Eve.]

But director, Dallas Jenkins, has never wanted this to be about making it big. He wants the message to go big, but his first focus is still on the intention to keep The Chosen available for free. He says on the YouTube link for tonight’s livestream:

When the theater chains told us they wanted to extend our run in theaters, our response was, “That’s great, but those who can’t see it in theaters have waited long enough.” So we’ll see you LIVE Sunday night, Dec. 12, 8:00 ET, for “Christmas With The Chosen: The Messengers.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOTkTBxTxEA

If you haven’t had a chance to watch last year’s “Christmas with The Chosen,” it’s also worth a watch. The show includes powerful narration as well as guest musical appearances from For King & Country, Zach Williams, Mandisa, Chris Tomlin, Hillsong United, Joshua Aaron, The Bonner Family, The Piano Guys, Stephen McWhirter/Jason Clayborn, Phil Wickham, and Matt Maher.

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