Lucky me

I continue to be blanketed with many deeds of service, from childcare to meals to house cleaning, to driving, and anything else that I need. It's incredible. One of the women from my church who came yesterday afternoon to help with childcare also gave me a profound thought. Something so awesome, I can't help but share it.

In order to understand it, I should preface with a little background of LDS doctrine, which includes the concept that before the earth was formed, we lived as spirits with our Heavenly Father. He had a plan for us, which included the creation of the earth and our being born into it so that we could receive a body and use our free agency during mortality to be tested and tried, and we would have a Savior who would help us overcome both physical death (through the Resurrection) and spiritual death, or sin, (through the Atonement) so that we could one day return to our Heavenly Father. Satan rebelled against this plan and was cast down, along with many spirits who chose to follow him. They were denied the opportunity to be born and receive a body on this earth. In the book of Matthew, there is a story where Jesus comes across two men possessed with evil spirits. As he is casting them out, the spirits beg him to be put into swine. They go into the swine and drown themselves. But to them, it was at least a chance at having a mortal body.

My friend's comment was that no matter what physical infirmities we have to endure in this lifetime, no matter how imperfect our bodies are, there is someone who is jealous of us. There are spirits who lost their chance to be here, and they probably look very longingly upon us, even when we are in a hospital bed or on a radiation table, or when we are taking painkillers or anxiously awaiting the results of a medical test. Even if our lives are shorter than we want them to be. I picture them looking at my situation and sounding very much like Napoleon Dynamite, when he looks at Pedro's bicycle and says, "LUCKY!!!!" I have something that they envy, and it's just "too bad/so sad" for them.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and while I'm not Irish, maybe I just have luck on my mind (ooh - I hope literally) because of what my friend said. I am lucky. I am able to participate in the big plan. I hope this plan needs me hanging around here for a long time so that my kids will have their mom. I hope this plan needs me to stay here and grow old with my husband. I hope and pray a lot. But regardless of what is in store for me, I realize that I am very lucky.