From her book ‘100 Favorite verses to Bring You Closer to Christ’, Shauna Humphreys wrote:
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. (1 John 3:1)
In the world there is a skeptical tendency to hold God at arm’s length, questioning His power and authority and sometimes His very existence, how blessed we are to have scriptural assurance that God is mindful of His children and is a God or love so infinite and intimate that He wants us to return to His presence. That love, manifested in His willingness to allow His Beloved Son to take upon himself the cloak of mortality and the robe of righteousness and suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross at Calvary.
Enoch beheld firsthand the love of a tender, compassionate God when He saw the God of Heaven wept because of His wayward children, thus discounting any mistaken concept of a cold and dispassionate Deity too far removed in His omnipotence to be concerned about the mundane affairs of His Children. Enoch marveled that God who was “holy, and from all eternity to all eternity” was not only just but also “merciful and kind forever.” He was touched and humbled by the Lord’s poignant reply. “Behold, these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of min own hands” (Moses 7:29-32). His creations for whom the Savior would willingly lay down His life in order to offer them a way back to that God who had given them life. When the vision of the tree of life was unfolded to Nephi, he beheld the birth of the “Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father,” enlarging his understanding that the “tree of life . . . [was] a representation of the love of God,” symbolic of His Only Begotten Son whose mortal mission was to minister “unto the people in power and great glory” and with love and compassion as He healed the sick and the unclean. And Nephi “saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world” (1 Nephi 11:20-23) not against His will or the Father’s, but because of God’s love for his children. .
This manifestation of infinite love confirms the Savior’s declaration that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 18:10). By giving us the gift of His Only Begotten Son, God prepared the way where we could be welcomed back into His presence, where His and our joy can be full, and where our Heavenly hosts await that glorious reunion, ready to enfold us in the arms of Their love. The Savior did all the work, making the way easier for us. Like the Children of Israel whose defense against fiery serpents was assured if they would simply look upon the brazen serpent (symbolic of Christ), we are promised the gift of eternal life if we believe in Jesus Christ and keep His commandments, thereby accepting God’s great gift of love to us. ~ Shauna Humphreys, 100 Favorite Verses to Bring You Closer to Christ (American Fork: Covenant Communications, 2012), 85-86
