Drinking the Cup
Saturday, June 28th, 2008I typically manage to escape the minor illnesses that circulate in my home. But this last aggressive virus that came to my daughter got me too. Actually, I took a drink from the wrong cup–one I thought was mine. Like clockwork, I began to experience the very same symptoms that Talia had described. One by one, I felt them and knew better than ever what I had been treating her for, and how she had felt during the days of her weakened condition. I didn’t just know in a general sense; I knew in a particular sense, the kind of malaise, the scratchiness, the feverish effects, etc.
I began to reflect on the Savior and His atonement. He drank the bitter cup. The metaphor hit me in a new sense. It occurred to me in a slightly different context, that He drank out of the cup of my infirmities, and literally experienced the side-effects just as I had, in a narrow sphere, experienced those of my daughter in a real way.
He experienced each symptom of spiritual and emotional malaise, every feverish effect of mortality, all the scratchiness that comes with living in the imperfect world which grants us experience of all kinds. He doesn’t just know our experiences in a general and collective way. He knows them specifically.
He drank the cup. He tred the winepress. He finished His work. He suffered for you and I. He knows our dregs and our joys.
He, too, then, can aid us through His grace, His power, to overcome. He can supply us with the water of life that we need to feel better, the nourishment to heal, the rest to recover and remain in His presence–much as we provide our children with the liquids, the best foods, the needed rest to recover from the acute and chronic ills of life.
I testify that He is real and that He lives, and that He did truly suffer and die for you and I, that we, through Him, might live eternally.
Just a thought for today. Let me know how the Savior has helped you through in your life.
