Nate's Easter Talk

This is an entry from my Tender Mercies Journal written about two months after Josh passed away.

About a week ago I found some folded paper in the back of the van while I was hauling in groceries. I discovered it was Nathan's talk he gave in Primary on Easter Sunday. I had forgotten he had given a talk, even though I'm the one who condensed it and printed it out. Because I was doing a Relief Society Easter program, I didn't get to hear Nate present his talk in Primary. And then life changed the next morning and if I hadn't found the printed talk, I would have forgotten all about it. As I read it, I was amazed at how much more meaningful and profound it was now that Josh has passed away. I gave it to Nate to read. He was quiet.

The talk begins with a story of how an older brother helps his younger brother and then ties it into how Jesus helped us when we were unable to help ourselves ~ through the atonement and resurrection.

I asked Nate if he were in pain, wouldn't Josh do everything he could to help him just like the brother in the story? He answered, "yes." Josh may have been a tease to Nate, but he would be a protector and a helper when needed.

When Nate presented the talk which testifies of the resurrection and of families blessed to be together forever, they were words.

After Nate read it again last week, I asked if he was done with it. He said, 'yes, but don't throw it away.'

It was more than words now. It was a tender mercy that someone in the Primary assigned him to give a talk on the true meaning of Easter on the last day he would see his brother, Josh, in mortality.

Quoting from the talk..."In the peaceful setting of a spring garden, Jesus arose from His burial tomb to live again with our Heavenly Father. And in some wonderful, miraculous way, He gave us the same power and privilege. I do not know exactly how this will happen, but I know that we have, through Jesus, been given the opportunity to conquer all doubt and despair and death. That is what Easter means to me."

This picture is of the boys (and our Japanese student) holding up the Easter eggs they colored that morning. On Hiroki's egg he wrote a word in Japanese. We asked him if it was his own name and he shook his head no, and simply said, "Faith."