(I messed up! You’ll be getting two posts today.)
From Patricia T. Holland and previous post: My heritage was richly steeped in stories of early Mormon courage so my cousin and I when we weren’t acting like boys, spent most of our time together pretending we were great pioneer women. One day after school, we road our horses to the top of the hill above Andy P. Windsor’s farm. There, with great imagination and all the authentic ingredients in hand — one can of beans, two pork chops, two potatoes. two flint stones, a small box of matches, (as back up to the flint stones) and a dutch oven—we made preparations for “cooking our grub.” . . . . .
Continuing . . . Supper went just fine, and since no pioneer meal could be complete without marshmallows, we set out of find sticks on which we could roast them. We were not gone long, but we returned to find a fire completely out of control, at least it appeared out of control to two nine-year-old girls. As it increased its scope and spread, we could that its direction and speed would take it to A.P. Windsor’s house, Barnes and animals below.
Suddenly we were facing a genuine pioneer problem. True to the faith which our grandparents had cherished, we knew that our only hope would have to be heavenly. Instinctively and simultaneously we fell to your knees crying, pleading and praying vocally for divine help and power. We prayed with all our whole hearts, minds, and souls. We prayed as though our lives depended on it. We certainly prayed as if A. P. Windsor’s life depended on it. We prayed as only nine-year-olds know how to pray, with absolute faith, nothing doubting. God was with us on that hilltop that day—and I might say he was with the whole town of Enterprise as well. (I can see the headlines: “Two 9-year-old cooks roast the entire city of Enterprise.”) He can and did control our burning bush. I believe it was from that moment on that I came to know, nothing doubting, that God’s power is great, and child-like prayers are answered.
I have found, though, as I have weathered more of life’s experiences, that it is almost easier to have faith in the miraculous—especially a child’s view of the miraculous,than it is to hand over to God our everyday worries, concerns, and anxieties that can accumulate even as a “cloud of darkness.” From those same verses about fire given to Nephi and Lehi given in prison we read: “What shall we do, that this cloud of darkness may be removed from overshadowing us? And Aminidab said unto them, . . . Ye shall have faith in Christ, . . .and when ye shall do this, the cloud shall be removed from overshadowing you.” (Helaman 4:40-41.)
This brightness of hope and unspeakable of God’s power and comfort comes, even in everyday matters for me, only as for me, only as I prayerfully expert my right to his Spirit. If in my heart I go to God the moment I feel the slightest intimation of fear (or darkness or worry) instead of waiting to let it accumulate, if I speak to God even as my most trusted friend, my wisest counselor and stay there in my heart or on my knees talking to him long enough, I can always see a ray of light at the end of those dark shadows. Most often I can then leave his presence with my heart singing. This does not mean that my troubles have dissolved — they probably haven’t — but I somehow have the power to see above and around and through those clouds of darkness with greater calm and peacefulness. I know that he will, with time, help me to dissipate them completely.
Out of sorrow and despair we are, through the comforting, protecting grace of God, lifted out of our weakness to the very summit of spiritual, peaceful transcendence that. without the “Father of all comfort” could only be dreamed about from afar.
A French poet, Gullaume Apollinaire, once wrote: Come to the edge. No, we will fall, Come to the edge. No, we will fall. They came to the edge. He pushed them, and they flew. ~~~Sister Patricia T. Holland “On Earth as it is in Heaven” p.38–40 Continued
