Family
I think the idea
of family has some pretty vital and important roots. Deep within the
shielded mystery of life resides the second most powerful and
intriguing secret—gender. There
is male and female;
two different, marvelous, and complementary entities. When we say:
It's a boy! It's a girl! We speak of that which we know to be true,
but do not fully understand. None of us do, though some may think
they do. The compelling urge to create
in order to sustain our own life envelops the desire to procreate
in order to sustain our kind. We live to create, to be fruitful and
multiply and replenish the earth with others who will do the same.
There is a desire to have joy in our posterity. It has always been
so. (Exceptions and aberrations are just that and they do not change
the rule.) The entire process is, in a sense, a fragile and delicate
desire that is subject to significant frustration and pain as well as
euphoric fulfillment. The divine rules for engaging male and female
for their intended purposes are real. They should not be ignored; the
consequences for their violation can lead to great heartache. In
contrast, however, there is no greater joy than that which comes from
careful, consistent compliance to this urge for union between male
and female in the the human family.
I
believe family is an eternal as well as a temporal social structure
and it fulfills its true purposes both on earth and in heaven. Life
is eternal and so is family. In the ultimate sense, everything about
life seems to be about family. Things on earth are patterned after
things in heaven. It's not complicated. Yet ironically, ever since
Adam and Eve, the earthly family has been in jeopardy. In my world
view, everyone is or can be part of three basic families: (1) a
pre-earth family—where
Heavenly Parents provided us with a spirit body;
(2) an earthly family—where
earthly parents provided us with a physical body
to house our spirit being and personality; (3) the opportunity to
join a spiritual family—with
Jesus Christ as head of the household and His Church as the mothering
agent. This is what Jesus was explaining to Nicodemus when he
inquired and was told: “Ye must be born again.” Just as entry
into mortality involves water, blood, and spirit, so joining Christ's
family requires water, blood, and spirit. (John 3:1-7;Moses 6:58-62;
Mosiah 5:6-10; 2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Romans 8:14; Galations 4:4-7.)
It is this family that prepares us for the resurrected body
that will entitle us to live with and be part of our Heavenly
Father's family following this earth life. Next, perhaps I could say
something about the tendency we humans have to reject and substitute
rather than accept and obey.
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