“Hope and Comfort in Christ,” Liahona, Sept. 2022.
Hope and Comfort in Christ
Let us hold to the promise that the Lord remembers and rewards His faithful Saints.
We can anchor our ultimate hope in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.
Photograph of hand from Christus statue by Scott Law
Jens and Ane Cathrine Andersen had a deep and abiding testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite angry mobs and community and parish persecution, they joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1861.
By spring of the next year, they heeded the call of Zion, beckoning 5,000 miles (8,000 km) away in the Salt Lake Valley. Gathering to Zion meant leaving behind their good life in Denmark—including friends, extended family, and a beautiful farm that for generations had been passed from father to eldest son. Located in the village of Veddum, near Aalborg, on the fertile Jutland Peninsula in northern Denmark, the farm was large and productive. It employed dozens and brought respect and means to the Andersen family.
Sharing those means with their fellow converts, Jens and Ane Cathrine paid the emigration costs of approximately 60 other Saints making their way to Zion. On April 6, 1862, the Andersens, with their 18-year-old son, Andrew, joined 400 other Danish Saints on the small steamer Albion and sailed for Hamburg, Germany. Arriving at Hamburg two days later, they joined more gathering Saints aboard a larger vessel to begin their transatlantic voyage.
The joy of gathering to Zion, however, soon turned to sorrow. Several children who had embarked on the Albion were carrying the measles virus. As the disease swept through the ranks of the immigrants, 40 children and several adults died and were buried at sea. Among them was 49-year-old Jens Andersen, my great-great-grandfather.
Jens’s dream of reaching and building Zion with his family and fellow Danish Saints ended only 10 days out of Hamburg. One historian wrote, “A deliverer who like Moses never set his own feet on the promised land was Jens Andersen of [Veddum], Aalborg, who had assisted no fewer than sixty of his fellows to emigrate; he met death on the North Sea in 1862 soon after leaving [Germany].”1
The Trial of Mortality
Was the Andersen family’s sacrifice—leaving their comfortable farm and losing their loving husband and father—worth it? I’m confident the world would say no. But the world lacks faith, foresight, and the “eternal perspective”2 offered by the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
That perspective helps us understand our mortal life and its many trials. We face fear, betrayal, temptation, sin, loss, and loneliness. Disease, disaster, depression, and death shatter our dreams. At times, our burdens seem greater than we can bear.
“Although the details will differ, the tragedies, the unanticipated tests and trials, both physical and spiritual, come to each of us because this is mortality,” said Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He added: “We search for happiness. We long for peace. We hope for love. And the Lord showers us with an amazing abundance of blessings. But intermingled with the joy and happiness, one thing is certain: there will be moments, hours, days, sometimes years when your soul will be wounded.”3
We brave the bitter that we might savor the sweet (see Doctrine and Covenants 29:39). In the words of the prophet Isaiah, we are all refined—and chosen—“in the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10).
The Promise of the Atonement
Photograph of Christus statue by Alan Brent Harder
Affliction is part of the Father’s “great plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8; see also 2 Nephi 2:11). But central to that plan is the comfort and hope that come from “the great and glorious Atonement.”4 Through His Atonement, Jesus Christ came to our rescue. (See Alma 36:3.)
The Savior “descended below all things” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:6) so that He could take upon Himself our hardships and mistakes. He knows how to minister to us with full understanding of where and why it hurts.
“Since the Savior has suffered anything and everything that we could ever feel or experience, He can help the weak to become stronger,” said President James E. Faust (1920–2007), Second Counselor in the First Presidency. “He has personally experienced all of it. He understands our pain and will walk with us even in our darkest hours.”5
That is why we can anchor our ultimate hope in Him and His Atonement.
“Ours is a pessimistic and cynical world—one that, to a great extent, has no hope in Jesus Christ nor in God’s plan for human happiness,” said President Russell M. Nelson. “Why such global contention and gloom? The reason is plain. If there is no hope in Christ, there is no recognition of a divine plan for the redemption of mankind. Without that knowledge, people mistakenly believe that existence today is followed by extinction tomorrow—that happiness and family associations are only ephemeral.”6
I find hope and healing in Jesus Christ when I attend the temple and listen to the words of living prophets. I find comfort when I study scriptures that testify of Him and His Atonement. When mortality threatens your “peace to destroy,”7 turn to what I call “protection scriptures.” Here are some of my favorites:
Old Testament
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“He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces” (Isaiah 25:8).
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“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. … He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4–5).
New Testament
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“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
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“In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
Book of Mormon
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“And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:12).
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“And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise” (Moroni 7:41).
Doctrine and Covenants
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“Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come” (Doctrine and Covenants 68:6).
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“Wherefore, fear not even unto death; for in this world your joy is not full, but in me your joy is full” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:36).
These and a volume of other verses testify, in the words of President Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015), President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, of “the promise of the atonement of Christ.”8
The Pleas of a Prophet
When we understand the important role the Savior plays in our happiness now and in the world to come, we understand why President Nelson pleads with us to make Him the spiritual foundation of our lives:
“I plead with you to make time for the Lord! Make your own spiritual foundation firm and able to stand the test of time by doing those things that allow the Holy Ghost to be with you always.” Making time for the Lord, President Nelson added, includes making “time for the Lord in His holy house” through temple service and worship.9
“To each of you who has made temple covenants, I plead with you to seek—prayerfully and consistently—to understand temple covenants and ordinances. …
“… Whenever any kind of upheaval occurs in your life, the safest place to be spiritually is living inside your temple covenants!
“Please believe me when I say that when your spiritual foundation is built solidly upon Jesus Christ, you have no need to fear.”10
Graven upon His Palms
Andrew with members of his family
What became of Ane Cathrine and her son, Andrew? Did they despair and return to Denmark following their sad six-week journey to New York City? No. Relying on their testimony of the Savior and the plan of salvation, and trusting in God, they courageously pressed forward by train, steamboat, and wagon train. They reached the Salt Lake Valley on September 3, 1862, and joined in building Zion.
They settled in Ephraim, Utah, where Andrew married and started a family. Later, Andrew moved his family, including his mother, to Lehi, Utah, where he became a successful farmer, banker, and mayor. He served a three-year mission to his home country, more than two decades in bishoprics, and more than three decades on the high council or in the high priests quorum. Three of his sons served missions in Denmark and Norway.
With mortal eyes, we cannot see the glorious end from the tearful beginning. But with faith in Christ, we can look to the future with hope. And we can hold to the promise that the Lord remembers and rewards His faithful Saints, including Jens, Ane Cathrine, and Andrew. The Lord remembered them, and He remembers us. He has promised:
“Yet will I not forget thee.
“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15–16).