"And it came to pass that when Aaron had said these words, the king did bow down before the Lord, upon his knees; yea, even he did prostrate himself upon the earth, and cried mightily, saying:
O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead."
Alma 22:17-18
The king here I think at this moment in time realizes that God is real. (Also, just in case anyone hasn't read it, I should reassure you here that he isn't dead, but only having an extended conversation with God.) And I think he also realizes that everything that truly matters, God can bless him with. Salvation, eternal life--words that we say, but maybe don't really think about enough. The king wants to be raised from the dead, and that is part of it, but not nearly all. Christ paid the price for all of us to be resurrected and have a chance to repent. The eternal life he offers us isn't just extending our lives as they are now, but with perfect bodies that cannot die, or get sick, or age, and an eternity of good company as well, surrounded with people who are truly good and would never cheat or steal or desire to harm us. The price on our side, that the king is willing to pay, is to repent and work to *become* one of those people... the good ones that would never harm each other, and instead would do everything they can to help.
Today, let's consider what we would pay for eternal life in an ideal setting. In the stories, people spend fortunes and quest their whole lives to find the fountain of youth or to find a way to immortality, but here it is, right in front of us. God offers us the gift of eternal youth... only the ideal setting is in question, and that part is up to us. If we stick with God and work his plan, then we'll end up in a place with other people who have done so, and it will be an amazing place, without the evils that are unfortunately so common in this world. If we don't, again, we're going to end up in a place with other people like ourselves. I guess the question is whether we want to hang out eternally with other people like ourselves the way we are now, or if we want better company. If we do, then let's get working at becoming that kind of company. :)
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