During a recent vacation, my wife and I paid a visit to Inez Horner, an elderly cousin of mine who lives in the beautiful Heber Valley of Utah. Because we live in Texas, she was especially excited to see us. Almost immediately upon entering her home, she rummaged through a drawer and produced a letter that she had received from a long-lost friend.
“When we were stationed in France after the war,” she said, “we became very close to another couple and built a relationship that we were sure would endure forever. However, after we came back to the States the cares of raising families and pursuing livelihoods dimmed the bright recollections of those wonderful days long ago and we lost touch with each other. Although I thought of them often and wondered what had become of them, I had no expectation of ever hearing from them again—that is, until this letter arrived.”
She handed us the short hand-written letter from her friend whom she had not seen in more than sixty years! The fact that both of them had lost their husbands in the intervening years had not dampened the fondness they still felt for each other. The return address was in El Paso, Texas, and the street was not unfamiliar to us.
When we told her that we would be going through El Paso on our way home, Inez was ecstatic. “These things happen for a reason,” she said. “Please see if you can find my friend and give to her my love.” Well, a few days later we found Inez’s friend and showed her the photo we had taken of Inez on my cell phone. The joy in reconnecting with an old friend was readily apparent with both of them. We took her picture to send to Inez and I believe they will not lose contact again in this life.
“The very things that bring us joy also bring us pain and sorrow,” said Spencer Kinard. “No source of joy in this world remains forever bright, forever rewarding, forever satisfying. Every mother knows that eventually the baby hugging her tightly will leave to pursue his or her own individuality. The bonds of brotherhood that unite a team, a club, a fraternity will eventually weaken as its members pursue other interests. Even the closest of families slowly drift apart as children mature, begin families of their own, and move to pursue their own interests. That which we do hold close and keep near us begins to fade as age diminishes our sense of sight, sound and memory.” (“The Spoken Word,” June 8, 1986)
Over the years I have found this to be so true. For many reasons I have lost touch with old classmates, teammates, treasured colleagues, and close family members. Life is just that way.
To find that joy and those relationships that endure, we must look beyond this mortal experience—beyond the temporal, time-measured events of this world to the timeless eternities. There we will learn that many of today’s tragedies are simply the temporary trials and disappointments of mortal existence. “Life has its joys and sorrows,” said Elder Kinard, “but eternity has its promise. One of the more comforting assurances of that is that that which is good will be good forever.”
In “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” it is written, “The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave… and for families to be united eternally.” Now that is a promised relationship I can hang my hat on.
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