A Tender Christmas Memory

One particular year, I was working with three mentally handicapped children in a group home.  They lived with a family and I would come to the family’s house and help these three boys work on goals and help them with basic life skills. On that first night of Christmas lights, the daughter in the family was scheduled to perform at Temple Square in the North Visitors Center and I was scheduled to work, so a friend and I and two of the boys drove to Temple Square. This first night tends to be a very busy night with throngs of people finding their way around Temple Square. My job that night was to lead Shaun, while my friend helped Jason, through the crowds and to the Visitor’s Center and meet up with the family. We slowly made our way through the crowds.  In the North Visitors Center, we stopped at the bottom of the ramp leading to the Christus, as we decided whether to head upstairs to find the singing group or to go downstairs.  At the moment we reached the ramp, tears came into my eyes as I thought of the boy I was guiding.  Shaun’s time on earth would most likely be shortened.  In his condition (born with an enlarged heart, a decreased lung capacity, and unable to talk), his body had to fight hard and yet he had made it through nearly 18 years, long past what the doctors expected.

As I stood unaware of all the people around me, I envisioned that soon Shaun would probably make that journey and that his time on earth would be short.  One day he would return to heaven and to his Savior, Jesus Christ.  I pictured in my mind Shaun moving through through space towards Jesus. I saw Jesus take him in his arms and express to Shaun the love He has for Shaun.  My vision lasted for just a small moment, but it was a beautiful picture. I knew then that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love all of us, regardless of our handicaps or circumstances, and they long for us to return to live with them again.

Every time I return to the North Visitors Center, I reflect upon that night twenty-three years ago.  As I slowly walk up the ramp, I picture sweet Shaun in my mind.  The boy who loved Bruce Springsteen’s song, “Born in the USA” and would dance excitedly every time that song was played, but now he is no longer hampered by his physical body.  He is with his Savior and one day I will see him again and I will run to him and put my arms around him and I will thank him for allowing me to serve him while he was here on earth. 

(Jason is pictured on the left and Shaun is on the right.  They helped at my wedding reception.  Their job was to help take the gifts as people came in.)

A Force Shield of Protection

It had been a rough day.  I was feeling frustrated about the challenges of moving and seeing my children being required to adapt once again to their new surroundings.  I found myself home in the evening alone while all our children were at the church with activities.  I decided to work on my talk for the upcoming Sunday.  I had added a story from a previous adventure through a snow storm.  My talk spoke of gratitude even in our challenges, and that night, as I felt weighed down by my challenges and I was truly working to find gratitude for these challenges and help in dealing with them.  I had gone through my talk numerous times already (I am not normal -- I love giving talks, I love the entire process, and I work really hard to prepare).  This time as I read that story out loud an incredible thing happened and I saw more to the story then I had every realized before. It was an emotional and incredible moment -- to see what had been a tender story take on even a greater significance. Jonny's answer to prayer has always meant so much to me, but then to compare what I had experienced during that snow storm in a couple different ways to Christ's Atonement and to how he helps each of us deal with challenges was a new way of looking at the same story. I shall never regret our decision to go through the storm, because I now personally know how Christ will be our foundation and help us through the storms of life. I needed that knowledge after a frustrating day. I can face life, even when I want to shrink from my challenges, because I know that Christ will still be there to help me.

Here is the rest of the story: 

Once when traveling as a family in a severe snowstorm in the Sierras, my frightened 7-year old son worried over our safety.  He prayed and then shortly later informed us that the answer was Yes! Yes, Jesus would protect us; He had put a force shield over our car.  A few hours later we were still on the road, detoured off of 1-80, around Lake Tahoe both directions, and now on Highway 50.  The night was late, it was dark, the road was icy, the mountain treacherous, the drop-off intimidating.  The blinding snow coming directly at our windshield.  Ray felt we would be ok; he had the skills and the determination to see us through.  We followed a snowplow for a while until it turned around, and we were left primarily alone to see our family safely through the snowstorm.  All of our six children were peacefully sleeping in the back, unaware of the increase in the storms intensity.  

At one point, our car slipped, turned 90 degrees and stopped right in its place—the force shield had held.  What normally took us 2 hours to drive from Reno to Sacramento became a 7-hour ordeal for us.  Ray and I carried the burden of getting our family safely through the storm and brought our family safely home. Just as Christ once said, Here I am, send me. He came to earth, sacrificed and Atoned for our sins and made it possible that we could one day safely return to God.  His Atonement acts as a force shield that makes it possible to weather the storms of life.  

At times, we may be like Ray, confident, determined and have the necessary skills to make it through the raging storms.  At other times, we may be like me, battling fears and just holding on hoping that Christ will protect us and that we can weather the storm.  Or some times we may be like our children who slumbered that late night in the mountains in California, who were protected from knowing the magnitude of the storm.  Each of us in that car, Ray, myself, and our children experienced something different that night, but each of us were still protected by the force shield placed over our car.