I was just absently scrolling through Facebook updates this morning, and one of my friends had shared a link to a video. It's about 10 minutes long, and I usually hesitate to watch something that long. Sometimes they get boring and redundant, but I started watching it just to see what it was about. I watched all 10 minutes of it. And I cried the entire time. It's 10 straight minutes of clips of American soldiers returning home and being reunited with their families. You watch dozens of men in uniform surprising their kids and spouses, siblings and parents. At first I teared up because it was so sweet, seeing little girls and boys grabbing their dads like they would never let go again. But what kept me bawling was what I realized like never before: if there's one thing in this world that everyone agrees on, regardless of religious or political views, it's that family is important. It's meaningful. Time and again, other things like school were getting interrupted so that these families could see one another, because no one can say that there's anything more pressing than a family reuniting.
Then I started to think about family in the context of eternity. These people had been separated for a matter of months or years. After passing from this life to the next, there's no knowing when families will see each other again. Separated by death, and without the blessings of the temple, many won't live together forever, as I know they wish to. How bitter the anguish must be of a family forever separated.
But it doesn't have to be. I thought of myself, alone. My family broken. What I wouldn't do to keep that from happening! Jake and are are going to be married soon. How desperate I am to be sure to have him with me always! I can't say how painful it feels just supposing that this life is it. That all we get is time. But I know that that's not true. Families can be. Forever.
I know that something that wonderful can't come easily. Something of such great worth has to be worked for. The blessings of the temple aren't to be taken lightly. Nothing is more important, more worthwhile, more desirable. I know it.
