TheDiscipleMD

I recently became aquainted with a man who was involved in a tragic motorcyle accident.  It left him paralyzed from the chest down.  This man, who was once so robust, despite being in his mid-sixties, is now confined to a wheelchair and spends much of his day visiting hospitals and receiving medical care at home. I marvel at the courage and resilience of this man, or anyone, for that matter, who can overcome the temptation to cry, “Whoa is me,” while they sink into a great depression of mind and spirit.  His story reminded me of a conversation I had many years ago with a good friend who had been stricken in his fifties with a debilitating disease.  His spirit of joy and courage in his time of pain gave me great comfort and strengthened my faith in the eternal plan of salvation.  As I lamented his situation and gave him my sympathy, he said, “Well, we all die of something. It is all part of the plan.”  He said it without hesitation, and it wasn’t a canned response to my words of encouragement. He was reminding me of a fact that He knew to be true and one that I needed to be reminded of. He has since passed away.

I think one of the eternal beauties of this life is the belief that love is everlasting and that it does not die with the mortal body. “We all die of something” is a true statement when it comes to mortality, but my belief is like the thought expressed from the movie Bambi.

Love is a song that never ends

Life may be swift and fleeting

Hope may die yet love’s beautiful music

Comes each day like the dawn

That dawn has been provided, for eternity, by the Savior, who is the author of love. I believe it with all my heart, and the thought of eternal love moves me upward and forward with a desire to develop it with my wife, my children, and all mankind.