The Power of Love

I have practiced my Christian faith throughout my life. As a teenager I attended youth gatherings to learn and discuss the gospel. I enjoyed reading the holy scriptures and commentaries written by scholars who understood the historical contexts in which they had been written. I experienced many dear personal experiences that form a foundation upon which I can rest my hopes and righteous desires.  

While reading from many different authors who write about the same subject I encountered a wide array of opinions. As a teenager this presented both good and bad opportunities. During our adolescence we spend a lot of time trying to determine who we are and what our core belief system will be. There are significant episodes of doubt, questioning, and rebellion as we start to shape and form who we will be. In many ways we create a self-sculpture shaping and reshaping ourselves like clay.  

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During this time, questions abound, especially the questions that you ponder when looking at stars or talking with friends during all night gab sessions. You consider the apparent contradictions of existence. You wonder about your place in the universe and consider how small and infinitesimal you seem in comparison to all that lies in space and time. Yet I also felt enormously important as a child of God with divine potential and heritage.  

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I found myself contemplating those thoughts and so many others and my mind failed to think in words, only ideas.  I can describe the contradiction but I fail in articulating the understanding that melds those thoughts into a coherent belief system within my soul. It is in that context that I share with you a question that was often posed to me as a youth by religious speakers and instructors during Sunday classes, youth conferences and seminars. They would ask, “If you could talk to Jesus right now and you could ask Him one question, What would it be?”

For many years I considered that offer and several times I came up with questions for which I felt I needed an answer. I said that I would ask Him about the Creation and Dinosaurs. I would ask Him why bad things happened to good people. I would ask about heaven and what it is like. I went through a phase where I would ask about prophets and what made them so special. I remember wanting to ask Him in person whether I should marry my girlfriend. (I didn’t.)

About a decade after leaving my teenage years I was preparing a gospel lesson. I considered asking the teens in my class that very same question. While pondering that approach I discovered the answer for me; the question that I would ask my Savior if I could see Him in person today. I wouldn’t ask a question at all. I realized that if I had that chance I would kneel before him and say, “I love You.”

In that phrase, I have found the answers to all of my questions.