Description

One by One

After His resurrection, Jesus led His disciples out to the Mount of Olives where He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

“And while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go…” 

And we moderns live for that day: when He will descend in power and great glory. However, what many in the world do not realize is that this was not the last time those sacred feet touched this earth.

Sometime after His ascension there was a large group of His disciples gathered together somewhere in the Americas at a place called Bountiful. These were His people, and they were gathered at the Temple conversing about Him, when suddenly they heard a voice as if it came out of Heaven. They looked around, but they couldn’t understand what the voice was saying. The voice pierced them to the very center causing their hearts to burn and their bodies to quake all over.

The voice came again, and again they didn’t understand it.

When it came the third time, they understood, and they looked up. “Behold, my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name – hear ye him.” 

As they looked up, they saw a man clothed in a white robe descending out of Heaven.

He came down and stood in the midst of them. No one spoke. They thought it was an angel. He stretched out His hand as said: “Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.” 

And all at once, they knew Him and remembered that it had been promised that Christ should show Himself unto them after His ascension into Heaven. And all of them at that moment fell to the earth.

“Arise,” He bid them, “and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.” 

And then – and can you even imagine? – each of them, one by one, went forth to Him, and touched those sacred wounds until they had all gone forth. Every person saw, every person felt, and every person knew of a certainty who He was. So overwhelming was that moment that they cried out in unison: “Hosanna, blessed be the name of the most high God!…” 

And once again, they fell at His feet and worshiped Him. All their lives, they had lived for Him, and waited for Him – and now He was here! And one by one, one at a time, He had time for them.

Will His kindness and compassion for the faithful be any less at His second coming? No!

Sources:

Acts 1:10-11

3 Nephi 11:7, 10, 14, 17