He Loves Us to the End

When I was in high school, a few of us decided to get together after a Christmas choir performance. I followed a friend to a house I’d never been, we had fun, and it was late & foggy when it was time to go. I tried to remember the way I came, but was soon lost. I had no cell phone & no sense of direction. I panicked! Then prayed.

Then through the haze I glimpsed the star on the mountain, the star that lit up in my hometown every December since I could remember. I knew that star was right above my house. It looked tiny, so far away, but it was enough.

I followed that star home. I remember thinking at the time, “Just like the wise men.”

“Lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went ​​before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” (Matt. 2:9-10)

A few days beforehand, I was a different kind of lost, a different kind of far. I’d written in my high school journal: “What’s wrong with me?! Sometimes I feel so far from being who I want to be- even who I thought I was. I just want to know, be reminded, that God loves me and wants me back home- which is ridiculous because I know he does. But I want to feel it! Then I realize I’d probably have to fast & pray fervently & read my scriptures meaningfully which I haven’t been, & I think- do I even have faith that I’d get an answer? So then I’m afraid to ask, and I get nowhere. I know the church is true, I try to do right, but I feel so shallow! I’m so far from being as close to God as I want to be! Then I sit and whine about it and do nothing to change!”

Where was my star?

The entry continued later that night:

“I have to tell you what happened. I feel so at peace now. You know what? I did it. I humbled myself & asked & cried if God loved me. I said I knew I loved Him, & He loved everyone- but ME. I said I knew Christ atoned for us & God sent his son to die for us, and you know what? I flipped to John & found a ton of references to God’s love. They hit me hard! He answered my prayer.”

“For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me” (John 16:27)

“Jesus... having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” (John 13:1)

I was once again led home.

God loved that 17-year-old girl!

God loves me.

HE LOVES YOU.

It doesn’t matter how tiny the light is, how far away we feel, as long as we can see it. Follow it! It leads us home!

“Christ loves us to the end. His pure love never fails us. Not now. Not ever. Not ever.” -Elder Holland