Post by Nephi –
After having been gone for many weeks, we have returned to our parents in the wilderness. Having never been a parent, particularly a mother, I can’t say I understand the joy my mother expressed when we returned safely and successfully. I have never seen her so glad or relieved.
She told us how difficult it had been for her and my father. I being so young can’t imagine what it must have been like. My heart breaks for her. She has worked hard all her life but life in the wilderness is nothing like what life was like back in the land of our inheritance. But what touched me most was that her grief was not for the lifestyle left behind, but for the safety of her sons. This gave me a new perspective of her love for family.
She told us what our father had said to comfort her. Yet, even understanding this exodus to be the will of God, she was overjoyed and relieved when we finally returned. Imagine understanding in your heart what the Lord had asked but knowing in your head the practicality of the task at hand to be quite impossible. Balancing faith and trust with our mortal understandings, can be a difficult task
My father shared with my mother that God’s great goodness was clearly demonstrated in His requirement that we leave Jerusalem, and if he had not seen the things of God, we would all perish. He also assured her that we will receive a land of promise, and the Lord would deliver his sons out of the hands of Laban, and bring them down again unto them in the wilderness.
So when we returned to the tent of my father, our parents’ joy was full, and my mother was comforted. It was wonderful to hear her proclaim that she knew with a surety that the Lord hath commanded my father to flee into the wilderness; and that the Lord had protected us – her sons, and delivered us out of the hands of Laban, and given us power to get the plates.
As part of this great rejoicing we offered sacrifice and burnt offerings to the Lord to give thanks to the God of Israel.
