Book of Mormon Blogging Part Five. 3 Nephi 22.

3rd Nephi 22 is a chapter full of hope. The day may be dreary today, but the sun really will shine through the clouds tomorrow. He may forsake us for a time, but it is because he loves us and he knows we need to grow from the experience. I know that in the thick of things, it can be really hard to see through the smog. The darkness can make us forget how the world really is, because our perspective is skewed and suddenly what we know is forgotten or becomes unclear because of the darkness that is surrounding us.

The light does come through though. The dawn will appear. Spring will come. And life will be found anew. He is preparing a beautiful world for us. And when He is hard to find, it is because He is busy building our future mansion. Verses 11-12: "O thou afflicted, tossed, with tempest, and not comforted! Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all they borders of pleasant stones."

You know, those same jewels which He is going to decorate our houses with, those jewels have had to undergo heat and pressure for years to become the perfect specimens of beauty that they are. The same heat and pressure they must undergo we must undergo in order to be made perfect. We have to be put in the refiner's fire, and while it may seem that the Lord has forgotten about us, it is in the moments of hardships and affliction that He is the most aware. And when our sore trial is over, the light will come and our blessings which had hither to been hid up will be revealed.