Opportunities for Blessings

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I remember a quote by Joseph Smith saying:

A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone but ranges through the world, anxious to bless the whole of the human family.

I have always liked that quote because I have felt that yearning at times to be able to bless the more of the human family than just my own family. I have known intellectually that priesthood service is an opportunity to fulfill that yearning to bless a wider reange of people, but this weekend I had an experience that brought a new level of understanding to that opportunity as well as to the need to be ever ready to administer in priesthood functions.

A devastating crash on Friday night left a father and mother dead along with a young family friend. It also left a young girl in critical condition in the hospital who, along with a nearly two-year-old brother (who was minorly injured) is now without parents. I knew none of these people, but the father who died is a brother to the wife of the family that I home teach and because of the daughter being in Primary Children’s Hospital, many of the family members came to stay with the family I home teach. On Saturday night, after they left the hospital to get some rest, I went to their home with the Bishop and Elder’s Quorum President to visit with this grieving family and offer whatever assistance we could.

I have known this family for less than six months, and I have never before met any of the relatives who were staying there, and yet upon entering the house in the capacity of a priesthood holder they were not “strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Ephesians 2:19)

It was a marvelous blessing for me to be able to feel that Christian love for others in need and offer to help in any way that they needed. As we offered comfort and blessings as requested I came to see how priesthood service offers the opportunity in a very real way to range throughthe world blessing the whole human family.