I don't know why, but this afternoon I started thinking about an experience I had back in college. One of my roommates one summer had a family reunion at Bear Lake. The entire family (including great uncles, etc.) rented a cabin or something up at Bear Lake and had boats and other water activities. She went up for a day, and took the two of us roommates.
I remember that the day was beautiful. It was warm, but not hot, and the beach was very inviting. We walked down to the beach to meet up with her family and go out on the boat with some of her relatives. (Side note, this was where I first met an apostle. My roommate was Kristine Perry. She had a great uncle she didn't mention. As we walked down the beach, she said, "Hey, there's Uncle Tom." Uncle Tom turned out be L. Tom Perry, an apostle. This was a fun experience, as he was also in beach attire. He was a fun guy. :D)
We went out on a boat with some of Kristine's family. I don't remember my thinking. I wish I could... But in any case, I refused sun screen. For those of you who know me, I know you are shaking your heads. I burn VERY easily (or used to). As a kid, all I had to do was walk down the street for two minutes and I'd come back with blisters. (I don't think I'm exaggerating much, either.) So refusing sunscreen, while stupid for everyone, was completely idiotic for me. I think I was hoping to get some color, but I honestly don't remember the thinking (or lack thereof).
In any case, after an hour or two on the boat, Kristine's older male relative (I can't remember who he was) started commenting how he could already kinda see a sun burn showing up on me and that I'd better get some sunscreen on. I finally did, but I had already spent at least an hour or two on the boat in a swimsuit without it.
I was burned to a crisp. You know how red a ripe tomato is? Well, I was redder than that every single inch of me that wasn't covered by my suit. It was SO painful. It had already started showing up by the time we got in the car to go home. I had to call in sick to work the next day.
The next evening, my roommates went next door to grab one of our good guy friends to give me a blessing to help with the sunstroke I had inflicted on myself. The story we were telling everyone was that this burn was WITH sunscreen on. Which was technically true, though very deceiving, as I'd had a couple hours without it FIRST...
Keep in mind that the friend who gave me the blessing of comfort thought I had put sunscreen on at the beginning from the way we were telling people about the burn. But when he gave me the blessing, I knew that it didn't matter what HE knew. The blessing came from God. I don't remember the exact language of the blessing, but it said something about being made whole in spite of foolishness or that I was loved even when I was being foolish- something along those general lines. I remember it mentioned my foolishness.
Our Heavenly Father knows all, and it doesn't matter what we tell others. He still knows the truth. This experience reminded me we can't lie to Him. It also taught me that priesthood blessings do not come from the men who give them but from God.
This brings to my mind another experience with priesthood blessings. When Anna was about 10 months old or so the world experienced the big Swine Flu scare. People were dying of it and they had not yet figured out a vaccine for it. The medicine to fight it, Tamiflu, was in short supply due to the major outbreaks everywhere.
Scott came down with swine flu one weekend. We took him to instacare and got it diagnosed, but he wasn't given any medicine for it. (We never did like the instacare doctor....) I couldn't go to work because I was infected with it. Anna couldn't go to daycare because she was infected with it. We were shut into the house under quarantine (so it felt, even if it wasn't an official lock-down). Scott was SO miserable. The flu was horrible- he was so extremely sick.
We called some men from our ward to come give him a blessing. I don't remember most of the blessing, but I do remember that he was blessed that his caretakers would not get sick, but would be able to care for him. That was Sunday. On Monday, Anna came down with it. I took her to the doctor and got her medicine. As I took care of my sick family members, I remember clinging to the knowledge that I would NOT get sick. We had been promised that in Scott's blessing.
And you know what, I didn't. I think I was meant to, though. Around Tuesday, I developed a minor case of pink eye. Pink eye is caused by various infections that go to the eye rather than the rest of the body. I think I did get the virus, but in honor of the blessing, all it developed was pink eye rather than the swine flu. (And we even still had medicine for it. Anna had come home from daycare with it a month or so before and we had all caught it. We hadn't used all the eye drops. I needed only one or two doses of the eye drops and it cleared up completely.)
I came into contact with swine flu many times that flu season, due to my job of teaching. But I never did come down with it. This was a direct fulfillment of that priesthood blessing Scott was given (though just not getting it while my family was sick would have been a fulfillment).
These are two experiences that have always stuck in my brain as testimony builders on the power of the priesthood. Just because we get a priesthood blessing doesn't mean things will go away immediately. I know there are stories out there of people getting a blessing and immediately being healed. But I think most of us won't experience that. I think most of us will experience what I have talked about here. We will be promised or told things in blessings that will show us that the Lord really is aware of us. But most of us won't have miraculous healings.
But I bet if we all think really hard about it, we will all see the blessings we have had that have showed us the Lord is aware of US and knows us personally. And that is so much more valuable than getting up out of a sick bed and being completely better right away.
Just some thoughts.
No comments:
Post a Comment