Sunday, February 3, 2013

Birth and Rebirth


BIRTH

Olivia Rose Morris, daughter of Spencer and Jonelle Morris and sister of Logan and Grace, and born on her brother's birthday

We long to hold each precious newborn and feel her/his closeness to our loving Father in Heaven.  Our joy and tender feelings at new birth though miles apart recalls to us the tender words of William Wordsworth: "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting. Not in entire forgetfulness, and not in utter nakedness, but trailing clouds of glory do we come."  Wordsworth expressed the doctrine taught in Romans 8:16 "that we are the children of God" and in Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I [God] formed thee in the belly I knew thee..."

We are grateful that Olivia comes to a family "with parents kind and dear" who will "teach [her] all [she] must do to live' with our Heavenly Father some day.  Last fall we passed a park in northern New Hampshire that featured numerous statues, including one of a motocyclist and the one at the left.  We named this one: "Pray in your families." (see 3 Nephi 18:21)


REBIRTH

Elder Christensen and two sisters


















Similarly, our joy is full as we witness the ordinance of baptism of those who choose to follow the Savior Jesus Christ who said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5)  We feel the same tenderness as individuals decide one by one to walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4)

Elders Irving and Lewis at a baptism last fall

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