Invading the World with Light and Love
Contributed By Valerie Johnson, Church News staff writer
“For as the light of the morning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, and covereth the whole earth, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” —Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:26
Article Highlights
- Look forward with faith to the Savior’s Second Coming.
- Trust in the Savior and replace fear with faith during trying times.
- Remember that the Lord is mindful of His children.
“The thought of His coming stirs my soul. It will be breathtaking! The scope and grandeur … will exceed anything mortal eyes have ever seen or experienced.” —Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
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For over 30 years, Elizabeth Smith of the Pleasant View 1st Ward, Provo Utah Sharon East Stake, has worked just a few blocks from the Provo Tabernacle, now the Provo City Center Temple.
“There’s just something about that spirit [of the tabernacle] that just thrills me,” Sister Smith said.
Sister Smith has been involved with the tabernacle since the 1950s. She even spoke there during stake conference.
“They asked me on a Friday night, ‘Would you please speak on Sunday on the Atonement?’”
She decided to tell a story about her son when he was in first grade. He would watch the Mickey Mouse Club at his friend’s house. “One day he came running home. ‘Mother, we’re being invaded!’ he said.
“I said, ‘What do you mean?’
“‘Monsters are invading the earth!’
“‘Where did you hear this?’
“‘I saw it on television.’”
Having changed the channel, he and his friend had found another show depicting entire cities being destroyed by ‘invaders,’ and he was certain that he and his family were in trouble.
After dinner, Sister Smith and her son went up on a hill where they could look down into the valley. “I said, ‘Do you see all those lights? … There are people down there with all those lights. Who made the people?’
“‘Heavenly Father.’
“‘Do you think that took a lot of work?’
“‘Yes.’
“‘How about mountains?’” She asked him about other things found in nature. “I said, ‘Who made them all?’
“‘Heavenly Father.’
“‘Do you think that He would let something from outer space destroy all that?’
“‘No.’
“I said, ‘Good. Then you feel better about it, OK?’
“Everything went fine, but he didn’t go watch the television at his friend’s after that.
“About two weeks later, I heard this cry: ‘Mother! Mother, come here!’ I went to his room. He was sitting on the top bunk. The sun was streaming through the window onto the bunk and he was bathed in the light. He said, ‘Look, Jesus is invading the world!’”
After that, Sister Smith found a scripture in Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:26: “For as the light of the morning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, and covereth the whole earth, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”
