We are well into Lent on the road to Easter now, so an Easter thought or two.

A few days ago I viewed the 2026 Easter video of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was personally significant because it asked questions I’ve asked myself my whole Church life: how could he do it — how could he do that impossible thing? After enduring infinite physical and spiritual agony in Gethsemane, how could he even stand up? How could he meekly permit them to a torture his body to death on a cross? It’s beyond mortal comprehension, but the video gives us a clue. It suggests the answer to the question “how” is found in the answer to the question “why”: because of his love, his infinite, eternal love for his Father, and for each of us, individually. His love for you and me drove him on.

I had left the Church’s website open as I pondered the message, and after a few moments another video started automatically. I nearly turned it off, but something caught my attention. It was a married couple telling the story of Emilie Parker, one of their three daughters. She was delightful, loving, bright, inquisitive — everything they might have hoped for in a little girl. Then, every parent’s nightmare: on Wednesday 14th December 2012, they received news of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the school that six year old Emilie attended. They raced to the school, hoping against hope, but Emilie was one of twenty 6 and 7 year olds who were shot dead. One the most horrific, mind numbing tragedies in modern times.

Something the father said in the interview stood out for me. On Thursday 15th, the day after the tragedy, he got a message from someone who was clearly not his friend, or a friend of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or, possibly, another parent lashing out in his own agony?). In a sneering kind of tone, the message said: “so, where was your god yesterday at 9:30 in the morning”. He mentioned this message in a matter of fact kind of way, without bitterness or anger. His immediate response was this: my God was where He needed to be — in the school, comforting survivors, helping those who just entered His Spirit World, supporting parents with arms outstretched for all who needed his embrace — Jesus wasn’t a distant observer, He was there in that place of grief, for all who would receive Him.

At times of suffocating sorrow, overmastering terror, unendurable pain, deep depths of hopeless despair, the veil hiding heaven is thin, sometimes transparent. When we reach the limit of endurance, when our tank is empty, our strength used up, angels are close by; we just have to reach out. Joseph Smith knew all about it: “At the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction . . . I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head above the brightness of the sun.” We may not have a glorious vision like Joseph, but the powers of heaven are real and close by. Our Saviour loves us and wants to bless and comfort if we let him in. After our own Gethsemane, no matter how heavy the cross we bear, there is always a glorious Easter Sunday. Maybe not three days later, or three years, or even thirty years, but it will come. And while we wait, our Saviour will never, ever, abandon us. He is always there, just a prayer away. Hidden miracles can be found by all who seek them. This is the message of Easter, the most important message of all time, for all people.

Here are links for the two videos:
Greater Love
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/welcome/easter?lang=eng
Hidden Miracles
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/video/hidden-miracles-life-after-the-sandy-hook-tragedy