Episode #209 – You Will Meet Him. I am your host Damon Socha. Today’s message will be short but I hope impactful in your life. I think about you a great deal. Yes you the audience of this small podcast. I have noticed that many of you are regular listeners and I appreciate it. While this podcast may have helped you, it has been a source of inspiration and guidance for me. I often wonder about you and how you are doing with your various concerns. How your lives are progressing. If you have found some healing or if you are still struggling to find your footing. I wonder a great deal about your struggles and your daily pain. I have often asked for your healing and that while I may not know you personally that the Lord does. Over the approximately four years of this podcast, I have felt the Lord’s concern for you regularly. I have many times thought about ending this podcast for one reason or another and I have been unable to do so. When I do the Lord always reminds me that he cares for the one and if I could say something to help that one this week he would appreciate my effort.
So today I speak to the one, the one who is suffering at Christmas. I speak to the one who is wondering if their life still has meaning. I speak to the one who is struggling in a relationship because their illness always builds those terrible walls. I speak to that person who feels alone and isolated, who may even be wondering if a Savior even cares. Who can’t feel that full Christmas spirit or perhaps any spirit at all. I speak to the one who cries at night and wonders why.
The Lord cares for you. That is the message of the entire Book of Scripture. The Lord cares for the one. He ministers to the suffering, the weak, the isolated. I know that we often see the Savior as a God who has a great deal to accomplish and that he must have far too many important duties to come and sit with my suffering soul for a time. And yet, that is what I see him doing most of the time. Ministering to the suffering soul. Yes he also sends angels, those who have passed on to be with us. But from time to time, the Savior himself comes and sits with us a while, he walks the road to Emaus with us without us even knowing that it is him. He appears and we in our deep mourning wonder if he is the gardener. He is with us far more often than we fully comprehend, ministering to our needs, lifting us up out of our pain and suffering becoming that angel in the garden strengthening us in our personal Gethsemane.
When we eventually stand before him, we will be shocked at how familiar his presence feels to us. We will wonder why we ever doubted. His face will be so familiar to us and that overwhelming love will melt us to our knees. We will feel his deep and abiding love for us and we will feel and know that he has been with us many times in our lives. Those moments will roll through us like a clear river and we will weep at those tender moments and mercies. We will bathe his feet with our tears but he will raise us up and embrace us. We will feel the tenderness in his hands, the warmth of his body and the love that radiates through him. We will forget those trials and dark troubles in our lives and those moments we have suffered, if it meant that we could arrive at this moment. He will speak to us in soft tones and loving encouragement. Those words we have wanted to hear, “Well done thou good and faithful servant” will fall from his lips as cool water in a parched desert. We will long to remain in his embrace as long as possible.
It will be then that we will see this illness for what it was, for what it provided. He will sit with us a while and will help us to see all the whys and wherefores. As each moment passes in our lives like a movie, he will show us just how much he intervened and protected us. We will see him in every moment of our lives, even those moments when we were not as dedicated to Him. And yet we will not feel terribly ashamed because we always returned to him. With some humor he may recall one of those I told you so moments and you will both laugh and shake your head. He will then show you how he used your illness to bless you. And you will be shocked at the value of the trial and the miracle of its use. You will see how your illness molded you in ways that you could not have accomplished by any other means. You will see how with the Savior’s atonement your illness made you celestial in nature. You will see things as they really are and will be. You will be grateful for those dark moments and those times when he stretched you to the point you thought you would break. You will also be grateful for his daily guidance as you see how he lovingly directed your life. You will weep as you see the many interventions for your sake and the care he took in mending your wounds and healing your soul. You will be shocked at the number of angels that were sent to aid you in your time or trouble. You will be astounded at the number of relationships in your life that were simply a continuation of those premortal relationships. You will simply be dumbfounded at how much time and effort was put into your life.
Your visit with the Savior will come to you one day. You will see him. Feel his embrace. Recognize his face, hands and feet. You will know that you have always known him. You will feel his deep love for you flowing through your soul like a warm river of light. That moment in time will make all that you suffer now worth every painful sleepless and dark night. Your heart will be entwined with his and you will know true love and true devotion.
I hope that today most of all you can feel the Savior. Ask him to let you feel his love for you. Ask him to be with you and I promise as you do, he will allow you the privilege of being with him for a time. You will feel that love and his presence. May he bless you this time of year and give you the hope and peace you desire. Merry Christmas and do your part so that the Lord can do his.