Touching Jesus

Come Follow Me (Ether, Part 2)

Ether chapter 12 recounts another face-to-face conversation between an ordinary mortal - Moroni - and the resurrected Lord, Jesus Christ - just a few chapters and a few thousand years apart from Mahonri Moriancumr's face-to-face with Jesus. (see chapter 3)

These accounts appearing so near each other in the record underscore something very important for me: ordinary people can ask for help from heaven - and get it.

According to Moroni, extraordinary things happen to ordinary people because of faith:

"Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth.

"Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

"Behold it was the faith of Ammon and his brethren which wrought so great a miracle among the Lamanites.

"Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after.

"It was by faith that the three disciples obtained a promise that they should not taste of death; and they obtained not the promise until after their faith.

"And neither at any time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they first believed in the Son of God.

"And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad." (Ether 12:13-19)''

So. Why doesn't help come every time? Why do people get forgotten down wells or pinned beneath buildings after earthquakes, or petition God for babies, or pain relief, or a place to live, or a life partner, and nothing happens? Why do so many beg for relief from specific temptations, only to battle those same temptations every single day the rest of their lives?

The bigger question isn't: how do you develop faith to move mountains. That is for studying and practicing, for sure. But truly, the bigger question is: how do you develop faith... to not move the mountains?

How do you wait in a well or under a building, and possibly die there?

How do you watch others hold babies your arms ache for, and continue to hope for babies of your own?

How do you live with constant pain, year after year, and practice the faith to know God hasn't forgotten you?

How do you face church every week in a ward full of families as a single person, wondering if maybe the love of your life died in the Civil War or the Spanish flu epidemic?

What does it look like to keep your covenants when a loathed temptation continues to plague and vex and seduce, and you feel like maybe taking the sacrament every week is an exercise in futility?

This particular phrase from Moroni has forever changed me:

"There were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong,... [they] truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad." (Ether 12:19)

Here, Moroni is speaking of the likes of Mahonri Moriancumr, one who could not be kept from within the veil because of his faith. Moroni suggests here that MM could already picture the body of Jesus Christ; otherwise, why would he ask Him to touch the stones he had moltened? That was such strong faith, Moroni uses the phrase "could not" four times in this chapter in describing Christ's response to MM's petition - basically asserting that Jesus Christ was bound to bring MM within the veil because of his faith.

That sounds like a natural law to me.

God, whom we imagine to have zero limitations on what He can or cannot do, is bound by eternal laws which He obeys with exactness. He never deviates from those eternal laws. He is so completely constant that the human family can rely on Him completely to behave in a certain way when certain conditions are present.

Studying natural law has been the Rosetta stone which made phrases like "could not" or God would cease to be God" (Alma 42:13) make sense in a completely new context - the context of God as the perfect Executor of eternal law.

God is an exalted Being whose job description includes: must adhere to the exact and unforgiving eternal laws of the universe 100% of the time in all conditions, regardless of how He is feeling at any particular moment. And God is able to do this, because He has trained His emotions completely to love without restraint as He enforces and executes these laws of the universe.

Is it any wonder He begs His children to pay attention to those laws?

I've quoted this before, but it describes natural law in context with God so well:

"It is important to understand that obedience is not simply a requirement of a capricious God who wants us to jump hurdles for the entertainment of the royal court. It is really the pleading of a loving Father for you and me to discover, as quickly as we can, that there are key concepts and principles that will bring happiness in a planned but otherwise cold universe." (Neal A. Maxwell, A Time to Choose, p. 13-14)

So, back to faith. If we exercise an eye of faith, we can see mighty things before they take place.

We can visualize cancer shells shrinking before, during, and after treatment appointments.

We can see legs which haven't walked for months getting stronger and walking when the physical therapist shows up.

We can imagine the job we don't yet have as we submit yet another resume.

We can imagine decorating a Christmas tree, surrounded by loved ones who haven't come home for Christmas in years.

We can see in our mind's eye - with an eye of faith - prodigals dressed in white in the celestial room of the temple.

We can see these things before they take place, thank God for the promised blessing before the promise is fulfilled, knowing full well the perfectly reliable and unchanging nature of the Promiser.

And then we can wait. And I think I speak for every human when I quote Inigo Montoya and mutter: "I hate a'waitin'."

Don't we all. When you're in pain, you want it to be over instantly, or maybe last week or last year. Some conditions of the Fall are superseded or intervened upon by Divine power in a miraculous manner, but many, many more are not, and require waiting. Heart-wrenching, soul-stretching, holiness-forging... waiting.

Those of God's children who must wait do not have less faith; perhaps they have more. Perhaps the greatest eyes of faith are developed in the waiting. David A. Bednar suggests that it may take greater faith to not be healed. (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2016/08/accepting-the-lords-will-and-timing?lang=eng)

One of the best waiters I know is Nick Vujicic, who was born in 1982 with no limbs. I first became acquainted with Nick through the moving short film, Butterfly Circus, made in 2009. I was then privileged to hear him speak in Salt Lake City when I attended the World Congress of Families in 2015.

In that speech, Nick made one of the most powerful statements I've ever heard which revealed the mighty eye of faith he had spent a lifetime developing.

Paraphrased, he stated that he couldn't wait until the Resurrection, because he pictured that the first person he would hug with his restored arms would be Jesus Christ.

That's what it looks like to have an eye of faith.

Eyes of faith are riveted upon the Promiser - the Author and Finisher of our faith - the One we can trust completely to keep His promises: here, or in eternity. Faith means trusting that all things will be made right and all tears will be wiped from our eyes (Revelation 21:4). Our faith-filled, tear-filled eyes will be wiped by hands with wounds in them. An unspeakably high price was paid to make everything right. Jesus Christ has far too much invested in this human project to abandon us now.

So hold on... and wait. Wait for - and with - the one who will make everything right.