A Beautiful Easter

Jesus Christ. It's like His name was in the air today. I'm kidding - it is Sunday after all, and Easter Sunday at that. But my, the Spirit seemed to be extra powerful today, testifying of our Savior and reminding us of his phenomenal sacrifice and love.

Today we combined the young women into one group for our lesson, and me and the YW President split the lesson in half. We set up the room with one long table and chairs set around it, with two plates full of large loaves of bread and cups set aside for grape juice. My half of the lesson covered the final week of Christ's life leading up to the crucifixion, and her half covered the burial and resurrection.

I spent some time over the course of a couple days attempting to prepare for this lesson. Truth be told, I thought it would be fairly easy. I mean, I've read, studied and learned a TON about these final days over the years, and I would say I know a fair amount about my New Testament gospel accounts. But I wanted to get the facts straight, and I wanted to add that little something extra that would help the girls really understand His last week with all of its significance and meaning and symbolism. And as I read and studied I grew more and more frustrated. It seems all I could find was incredibly deep, dry and somewhat questionable information. I was surprised - I thought this would be the kind of information available in spades from just a simple Google search! I finally turned to the Church website (something I should have done from the beginning I suppose) and even still I felt a little unsettled and not quite prepared as fully as I wanted to be by the time the YW hour came around.

I got there a few minutes early and the two of us had a prayer that the Spirit would be there as we taught and that the girls would be receptive to what we were teaching. We asked them to be quiet and reverent as they came in and sat down around the table, and they were as much as a group of 12-18 year old girls can be. We started by singing all three verses of I Stand All Amazed and at that's when it started - the waterworks. By me. I was crying - that ugly cry where I just wanted to sob - but I did my best to contain it and instead just streamed tears out my eyes. I could hear the girls' clear, sweet voices all around me as they sang this beautiful song about our Savior and all of the studying I had done over these past few days came at me in a rush and I was reminded of my profound testimony of Christ.

And that's the best word for it - profound. In my church, we talk a lot about testimonies - gaining a testimony of this concept or that spiritual principle. And our testimonies are always a work in progress. And while I have a testimony of important things such as the restoration of the gospel, eternal families and the principles of service, nothing holds a candle to my absolute faith and unwavering testimony in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

As I recounted that last week of Christ's life, the most significant week in all of history, I was reminded of how meaningful each and every event and every use of His time was. From His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, to His killing of the fig tree, to the unfair Q&A session in the temple with the cynics, to the Last Supper and to the most important event of all - the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ continued on his mission and did not waver once. He knew of the pain he would suffer and He knew of the betrayal he would face from those He loved, yet he continued on and still loved each and every one of those who would hurt, betray, forsake and forget Him. In that Garden He took not just our sins, but our pain, our trials, our suffering, our fears, our doubts and our personal agonies. He accepted them all so that we might have a way to return to our Heavenly Father and so that, while we are here in this life, we can know that there is at least one other person in this world who does know exactly what we are going through.

His love is beyond measure, His sacrifice beyond comprehension. That is my unwavering testimony. It is the yardstick by which I measure every other faith-based concept I believe in. He is my Savior, my Rock and my Redeemer. I am ever so grateful for that testimony because it is the most precious gift I own and the most important thing I will ever share with my children.