Tuesday, July 16, 2013

His Precious Blood

His precious blood He freely spilt
His life He freely gave
LDS Hymns, 195

For some reason, as I was singing that on Sunday, the thought occurred to me that He gave up His life because He counted it as naught, nothing, worthless. But that was quickly replaced by the thought that Christ knew exactly what He was. Who He was. I posted once about what Christ was willing to pay for us. But, what did Christ think of Himself? In the Doctrine and Covenants, he refers to Himself as "God, the greatest of all" (D&C 19:18). Now, we all know that. But the fact that Christ knows it about Himself just hit me like a ton of bricks. He knew what He could do, He knew what He could accomplish, and He went out and He did it. It wasn't pride, it was humility in its purest form. He knew exactly who He was, and He wasn't ashamed of it. He didn't hide it. He didn't shy away from it. He embraced it, gave everything He had to it, and came off conqueror. What if Christ had doubted? What if He had learned who He was, and gone, "Nah, that's too unbelievable." Yet, that's what we do all the time. We sing "I Am a Child of God" from the time we can speak, and how about the classic, "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam"? At some point, we decide that's just not true, Jesus doesn't want us, and we couldn't possibly be children of God. We don't go around saying it in words, but our actions scream it. Every time we put ourselves down or say we couldn't possibly achieve something, we are saying that it's just not who we are. But what if it's exactly who we are? That's not to say that we all have to go out and be rocket scientists or pop stars. Maybe it's just that you want to learn how to crochet, but you never do because you don't think you can. Or maybe you don't think you could scrapbook as well as your neighbor. Do it anyways. Whatever your goal is, just do it. And that's my two cents on the subject.