Family History Comes to Life

 Rather than try to distill inspiration and testimony into words (which is almost impossible anyway in the cacophony of four kids at home all day during summer break), in the past month I have been feverishly working on family history.  I feel a strong pull to learn more about my ancestors and to make that information more accessible to my children and other family members.  The two projects I have been working on are a family photo tree and a family history book.  

Thanks to photos sent from relatives and photo files on Family Search and Ancestry.com, I have found pictures of all of my husband's and my ancestors back to our second-great-grandparents.  Although the tree is technically upside down, with children at the roots instead of the branches, this six-generation photo tree has been a great addition to our dining room decor.  Our whole family has begun to get to know and love these ancestors whose work and sacrifice have greatly blessed our lives.  We frequently bring up a story about an ancestor during dinner conversation, and then we all look at the photo tree to find him or her.  The photos are very effective in helping us feel like we're getting to know the person.  Even my three-year old loves to point out 'his Joseph,' a second-great-grandfather who shares two names and three initials with my son.

  

 My second family history project is a family history book with each ancestor's life described on one page with a photo.  I actually started this book a decade ago, but with the creation of the photo tree I have been motivated to write more pages so each person on the photo tree has a corresponding page in the book.  I condense the information from longer life histories down to one page to make it easier for my children and other relatives to get to know many of their ancestors.  In some cases there aren't any stories or other information available, so I point out details based on the dates in Family Search like how many of the person's children died young, how old the person was during the Civil War, or what shipboard conditions were like when they came to America.  Although I have not found much specific information about some of my Scottish ancestors, I have been fascinated to learn for the first time about the Highland Clearances and how they likely affected many of these ancestors who immigrated to Nova Scotia in the early 1800's.    

         
My three children who are old enough to read have all perused the sixty pages I have completed so far.  One daughter searched the book to find all the ancestors who loved riding horses after she spent a couple of days at horse camp.  We have all chuckled over the stories of our spitfire grannies like Mary Ann Voorhees Snow, who burnt her own house down so a mob wouldn't have the pleasure of doing it themselves.

I have spent hours preparing family photo trees and history books for my parents, siblings, and in-laws, and I am excited to share them with the relatives that are gathering in a few days for my grandmother's memorial service.  After spending so much time working on these projects, I feel even more strongly that my grandmother is still close to us after her death.  I can feel the comforting love and concern of many of our ancestors for my family and me.
 

Working on family history as the mother of young children has its ups and downs.  On one hand, I tend to get so involved with my dead relatives that I forget that my living family needs to eat.  I am grateful for the times my husband has supported my family history efforts by making dinner while I am busily typing on the computer.  On the other hand, I can't believe we have lived this long without knowing all of these ancestors.  I feel like a more complete person now that I am getting to know 'my people.'  It is delightful to see how eagerly my children delve into the stories and other information about our ancestors' lives now that they are easily accessible.  Their experiences and character are already lending strength to our family, and I expect the blessings will continue to flow for years to come.

Two Lengths of Iron and the Atonement

As I have taught the Old and New Testament in Sunday School over the past year and a half, I have been delighted to see how beautifully the Bible and Book of Mormon work together to help us understand what Jesus Christ does for us through His Atonement.  For example, in the Bible the prophet Isaiah describes a symbol of Christ* in this way:  “And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place” (Isaiah 22:23).  When Jesus was crucified, the Romans used iron nails to fasten Him to the wood of the cross.  Nails are connectors.  They secure things, hold them up, and provide support.  This symbol may remind us of another place in the scriptures where a length of iron provides support and connection.  In the Book of Mormon, Lehi and Nephi saw in vision an iron rod that formed a connection leading to the tree of life (1 Nephi 8, 11).  As we sing in the hymn, the iron rod is the word of God.  But back in the Bible, the apostle John described Jesus as the word made flesh (John 1:14).  Jesus is the word of God in person.  So the iron rod is a symbol of Jesus, and iron nails are a symbol of Jesus.  As the Book of Mormon teaches, because of Adam’s fall (Alma 42:6) and our own sins (2 Nephi 2:5), we are cut off forever from the tree of life and the blessings of the love of God.  Jesus is the bridge, the connector, the iron rod or iron nail that connects us with Heavenly Father’s love and blessings as represented by the tree of life.  The long iron rod reminds us that it takes time and work on our part to reach all the blessings.  The short iron nail reminds us that our connection with God’s love and blessings comes through Christ’s agony on the cross and in the garden of Gethsemane during His Atonement.  Isn’t it powerful how these symbols from the Bible and Book of Mormon work together to teach us of our Savior?

               
The Book of Mormon explains how Christ is the connector when we pray.  I remember years ago praying and telling Heavenly Father that I felt close to Him because I talked with Him each day in prayer, but I didn’t feel as close to Jesus because I didn’t address Him in my prayers.  In 3 Nephi 18:19, Jesus taught that we should always pray in His name to our Heavenly Father.  But in 3 Nephi 19:18, we see the disciples kneeling and praying directly to Jesus Christ, and in verse 22, Jesus explains that they are praying to Him because He is with them.  Then in verse 23 we see Jesus praying to the Father for the disciples as they continue to pray to Him.  From these verses, we realize that when we pray in Jesus’ name, it is as if we are addressing Jesus and asking Him to carry our words to our Father in Heaven.  Jesus is the connector that makes communication by prayer possible.  Each time we pray, it is actually a group conversation with both Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father involved, so we can feel close to both of Them through prayer.

               
Our connection with God's love and blessings grows stronger as the mighty change progresses in our hearts through Christ's Atonement.  We do not apply the Atonement the way we apply Windex to clean windows.  We don’t just spray it on to wipe off our sins, then put the bottle back on the shelf.  The Atonement literally means at-one-ment, or the process of becoming united with God.  It enables a very personal, intimate progression that happens between each of us and our Savior, involving scrubbing sins, wiping away tears, shouldering burdens, shoring up weak spots, and polishing strengths.  Jesus described this process in both the Bible, during the Intercessory Prayer (John 17), and in the Book of Mormon, when He visited after His resurrection (3 Nephi 19), so you know it must be important if it’s described in both books of scripture.  Jesus explained that we are purified through faith, and then He comes to be in us the way the Father is in Him (3 Nephi 19:28-29).  Through this process of becoming perfect in one (John 17:22-23), we are first cleansed and healed, and then we are blessed to begin to see, think, feel, speak and act more and more like Jesus and Heavenly Father.  In the Old Testament, Ezekiel gives us a beautiful explanation of this change.  In Ezekiel 36:24-28, the Lord promises to “take you from among the heathen . . . and from all your filthiness . . . will I cleanse you.  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh . . . and I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes . . . and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  These teachings in the Book of Mormon and Bible help us understand that there is a higher purpose to our gospel ‘To Do’ list than just checking off the boxes so we feel like we’re earning our way into heaven.  In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin made it clear that we can’t ever earn our way into heaven anyway (Mosiah 2:21, 24), and Paul taught the same thing in the Bible (Romans 3:23-24, 27).  All these commandments and covenants we’re trying to learn and live are the way to invite Jesus Christ Himself to use His atoning power to work a mighty change in our hearts.  It is His power that will change and save us, but He won’t force that wonderful change upon us (Alma 5:14,33-34; 2 Cor. 3:15-18).  We have to invite it through our obedience to His words.  This is how we offer our “whole souls as an offering unto him” (Omni 1:26, Mark 12:33), so He can fix us and then fill us with the love and joy that He and our Heavenly Father possess. 

               
As I have come to better understand in recent years how Christ’s Atonement works, I have felt so relieved to realize that I don’t have to be strong enough to save myself.  I don’t have to be strong enough to be perfect right now.  I don’t even have to be strong enough to love myself, because my Savior is strong enough to do it for me.  I just have to reach for His hand each day and keep offering my whole soul to Him as I keep growing in my ability to obey.  As we get to know our Savior better through sweet experiences with the scriptures and the Spirit, our hope becomes unshaken in His great atoning, connecting power (Jacob 4:6, Hebrews 3:6).  Christ’s grace really is sufficient for us (Moroni 10:32, 2 Cor. 9:8).  It is everything we need.  

* Isaiah described Eliakim, who was in turn a symbol of Christ. “Isaiah made a symbol of . . . Eliakim. His name means ‘God shall cause to arise,’ anticipating the Savior, who holds the ‘key of the house of David’ but was fastened ‘as a nail in a sure place’ until the burden of the Atonement was complete. Upon Him rests ‘all the glory of his father’s house.’ Isaiah recommended depending on Him for everlasting security (Isa. 22:20–25 and fn.)” (Ellis T. Rasmussen, A Latter-day Saint Commentary on the Old Testament [1993], 517–8).