4 Nephi 1:3

"And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift."
4 Nephi 1:3


Tonight I saw a news story about a ship that was suspected to be carrying 200 African children to be sold as slaves.  Authorities suspected that the crew threw the children overboard when they knew that they were going to be caught.  What does this have to do with the scripture?  well, let me tell you... :)  What hope do any of us have... what hope does humanity have, without the heavenly gift?
I am sure that there are myriads of gifts that we get from heaven, but if we are talking about THE gift, it has to be the atonement of Christ.  What greater gift could anyone give us? Christ suffered for us.  How many people would really suffer for us?  When it gets hard, when it gets painful?  And, even scarier... how many would *we* suffer for?  This scripture talks about overcoming class distinctions, about overcoming the horrible injustices that people suffer in bondage... and we say, yeah... that is really sad, or ... yeah, people shouldn't be so selfish... but do we stop and think about ourselves?  Christ suffered for us because we are part of him... his family, his friends... we are all part of each other.  Every child on that slave boat today was part of me.  The people downstairs that shoot birds are part of me.  Christ suffered for them, he suffered for me... he suffered for you.  My favorite Dr. Seuss book has this line at the end:  "unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better, it's not."
My favorite topic in the world is becoming a Zion community.  I love to think about it, to ponder it... to figure out ways to get closer to it.  However, unless I work on making *myself* more like Christ, all the idealism in the world is going to fall flat on its face.  I can't ignore or criticize, or throw labels around like they are candy.  These are my brothers and sisters... part of me.  Christ suffered these things for all... so that we can all be free, so that we can all be rich.  Christ lived, died, and lives still, for us.  That matters.