It is finished

So, this was my last week in New Testament class. I have loved learning about the Savior and His doings and teachings this semester. I feel like I've been able to understand a little bit more of who He is and why it's important to constantly be studying and applying His words. This week we talked about Jesus's scourging and crucifixion, and later His resurrection. One of my favorite things we talked about was when Jesus tarried with the disciples He met on the road to Emmaus. On the road, He quoted scriptures to them about Himself and yet, they didn't understand who He was until this special moment, recorded in Luke 24:30-31. It says: "And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight." Brother Griffin talked about how they probably noticed the marks on Jesus's hands and wrists as he tore the bread and gave it to them, and realized who they were with.
I love this because that is what the sacrament does for us. When we sit down and take the bread and water each week, pondering His suffering and sacrifice and triumph, our eyes are opened to His mercy, grace, and love and we come closer to Him each time as we feel the warmth of forgiveness. Even though Christ doesn't physically hand us the bread and water, it symbolizes everything He went through and we take it because He was able to finish His Father's will and complete the Atonement, thereby making it possible for all of us to repent and live again. I think the significance of the sacrament is sometimes lost on us, but learning this this week will help me to make that time on Sundays much more sacred and meaningful, because He really is giving it to us personally, we just have to take the time to prepare for it and accept His incredible gift.

I have suffered these things for all

This week in my New Testament class we studied the Savior's suffering in Gethsemane. I gained a new perspective as we talked about the experience Jesus had in that garden. First, we talked about the range of emotions that we go through when we sin. We experience guilt, shame, sorrow, pain, hopelessness, loneliness,  doubt, and many other things. Jesus not only felt all of these emotions multiplied to an incomprehensible amount, He also suffered, as it says in Alma 7, our weaknesses, sicknesses, temptation, and any other physical and mental pains that come through various trials in life. And, something I never connected before is in Doctrine & Covenants 19. It says "For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent." This implies That Jesus suffered other things too, that none of us have ever felt, and that we will only feel if we don't turn to Him and accept the gift of His Atonement by repenting.
Knowing that just deepens my gratitude for Him and His sacrifice for all of us. Because not only are we saved from suffering after we die, we can be succored and supported through every single thing we go through. Because He truly knows, better than anyone ever could, what it means to feel cut off from everything good. He was in constant communication with His father until He entered that garden, and going from so much light to so much darkness gives Him the ability to lift us through everything.
I am grateful for this time of year where we celebrate not only the birth of our Savior, but also the significance of the life that He led. This video sums up simply and beautifully why we are so blessed and why we should show our gratitude to Christ this season, and every day of our lives.