Macro-love with Micro-manifestations

I think too often, we think of charity as this grand thing that is only put into action by large-scale demonstrations.  We seem to place simple love out of our own reach.  But, as Neal A. Maxwell said, even God's love is "macro-love with micro-manifestations!" 

None of us has true charity as Jesus Christ did, and I don't think we will any time soon.  But that doesn't absolve us from the duty, and from the privilege of putting our "widow's mite" in the coffer.  A smile?  A handshake?  Giving the benefit of the doubt?
Maybe we're don't have perfect love.  But He does.  I know He's more than willing to give it to us if we agree to pass it along.

Can't we just be a little...kind?

In others' words...
"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion."  -Dalai Lama

The best portion of a good man's life - his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
-William Wordsworth

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." 
-Plato

He Is Not Here

I consider Easter the most important holiday.  Not because it happens to fall on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox, but because of the empty tomb that it commemorates. 

As a youth, I never really captured the importance of the empty tomb.  Just like when Mary looked inside and couldn't quite comprehend, I didn't realize that, as Gordon B. Hinckley put so well,

"Here was the greatest miracle of human history.  Ealier He had told them, 'I am the resurrection, and the life' (John 11:25). But they had not understood.  Now they knew.  He had died in misery and pain and loneliness.  Now, on the third day, He arose in power and beauty and life, the firstfruits of all who slept, the assurance for men of all ages that 'as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive' (1 Corinthians 15:22)"

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is real and it means that there is hope.  No matter the circumstance, no matter the depth of our sorrow or pain, no matter the duration--it is temporary.  Our Savior descended below all things and overcame them.  He outlasted all provocation.  He defeated all enemies, and the last enemy that was defeated was death. 

Here was the only Man in the history of the earth who had power to voluntarily give up his life whether He were hanging on a cross or sitting comfortably in a chair--the only Man with power to take that life back again with the same ease. 

Because the tomb was empty--because He was not there--we can have hope in knowing that all of our struggles will be temporary; that if we are faithful, all things will work out for our benefit.   I know that He died, and I know that He rose.  We will all live again.  We will see His face and the marks in His hands. 

Here is hope. 

In Others' Words...

"He is Not Here."

Absolutely Essential

I apologize for the last post. I'm simplifying.  I will return to the real purpose of this blog and minimize my own commentary (soap-boxing) on the quotes I provide.  I can't really say it any better anyway. 

I am reprimanded by the words of a favorite author of mine, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.  In his book The Little Prince, the title character so truly teaches (as I have now illustrated):

"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."

Saint-Exupéry was a French pilot during WWII.  In spite of his involvement on behalf of his country, he despised war and viewed life with the eye of a poet.  He wrote much concerning charity, which the prophet Mormon defines as "the pure love of Christ."

The insights of Saint-Exupéry are simple but profound.  For fear of saying anything to detract from  their greatness, I will refrain from comment, but merely place quotes in a pleasant order.


"Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made."

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry             

"If a man say, 'I love God,' and hateth his brother, he is a liar:  for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also."

1 John 4:20-21

"For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow."

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"Love does not cause suffering; what causes it is the sense of ownership, which is love's opposite."  

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Let go. Let God.  Without charity, life is meaningless.  With it, life is given energy and purpose.  In it's pure unadulterated form, Love is the greatest thing in the world and the greatest absolute essential.

 As a summation of his philosophy, we can take these words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry to heart.

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."