Early Friday morning, at 3:42 to be exact, the phone rang, and news every family dreads receiving was delivered. On his way home from work, my brother-in-law was killed in a car accident. A young man, who had been out partying with his uncle, lost control of the car he was driving and killed his own uncle and my brother-in-law in the process. He fled the scene of the accident, probably not even stopping to think that his action had permanently altered not only his own life, the but the life of the wife of the man he’d just killed, the lives of those who love her, the lives of his own parents, their parents and all the surrounding family. The rippling effects from his actions will be felt throughout mortality and into the eternities.
When my mother, who was sobbing at the time, couldn’t understand “why,” the “how” of the accident was hitting her so hard, I had a perfect moment of clarity. A young man, wallowing in the depths of sin and degradation, through his incredibly selfish actions, took the life of a perfectly good, righteous man. Somehow the words so often spoken by those who indulge in self-destructive behavior have never rung more hollowly: “I’m not hurting anyone. I can do what I want. It’s my body. It’s my life.” Well, no it isn’t. You don’t exist in this world in a tiny bubble affecting no one but yourself. Wake up!
For myself, I have never been more grateful for the gospel. Although my heart is literally bleeding for my sister, who has only been married two-and-a-half years, I know that they will be able to be together once again. I know that her husband’s spirit is with her now trying desperately to offer comfort to a woman so wrapped in shock, disbelief and soul-destroying grief that he can’t get through. I know that their separation, in the eternal scheme of things, is for but a moment.
But oh, how those mortal moments stretch out to the one left behind. Never before has it been so clear to me how critical it is that we enjoy two-way communication with heaven. It is necessary that we stop with only talking and start with the listening. For our Father in Heaven and our Savior, Jesus Christ, wish to offer us a kind of love, comfort, peace and support that our mortal minds could never comprehend but our spirits have never forgotten.