3 Nephi 17:11-25

17:11-25 - Jesus has just healed all the sick and afflicted and now “he commanded that their little children should be brought.” He wants to see the little kids. It’s really interesting because I’ve always wondered at this before, why the little kids? Who not the teenagers, or maybe it was including the teenagers, I hadn’t thought about that. Once all the children are brought, “Jesus stood in the midst, … He prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him. And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father… And no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.” I have always wondered about this, I always wondered what Jesus could have possibly said that was so powerful that the people wept with joy. HN suggests "What he prayed cannot be written. Does that mean that it's impossible to write, or that it's not permitted to write? Either one. In this case is happens to be both." Interesting. I've learn by listening to HN that the language barrier is much more pronounced than I had originally thought. But perhaps it’s not what Jesus said, but why he said it. Interestingly after quoting this verse, in his October 2008 general conference talk entitled “Pray Aways” Elder David A. Bednar taught “Do our spouses, children, and other family members likewise feel the power of our prayers offered unto the Father for their specific needs and desires? Do those we serve hear us pray for them with faith and sincerity? If those we love and serve have not heard and felt the influence of our earnest prayers in their behalf, then the time to repent is now. As we emulate the example of the Savior, our prayers truly will become more meaningful.” That’s a very different take on this concept here, Jesus’s prayer was so powerful that perhaps each individual Nephite felt the Lord’s love for them. Interesting. After the incredibly moving prayer, Jesus "wept, and the multitude bare record of it, and he took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed unto the Father for them. And when he had done this he wept again; And he spake unto the multitude, and said unto them: Behold your little ones." Our church meetings, and really, many parts of our day are filled with emotion that brings about tears, so even though it seems pretty abstract that Jesus cried at this point, it was probably a pretty incredibly moving moment for him, and everyone really. He blessed every single child that was brought to him. HN suggests that he was giving them their patriarchal blessing, JW suggests "It seems to me that Jesus is not just inviting the parents to look at their children and admire them, although that endearing reading is possible. I would suggest that he is saying, 'Behold, your little ones'- they are yours. While it cannot be said exactly what transpired at this time on that extraordinary afternoon, the children apparently now somehow belonged to the parents through the Lord's blessing in a way they had not belonged before." Interesting thought there, perhaps something more along the lines of sealing power, who knows, but interesting assertion none the less. The IM quotes Sister Michaelene P. Grassli as teaching, "It's significant to me that... the Savior gave the most sacred teachings only to the children, then loosed their tongues so they could teach the multitude. Is it any wonder that following the Savior's visit to the Nephites, they lived in peace and righteousness for two hundred years? Because of miraculous instructions, blessings, and attention they and their children received, righteousness was perpetuated by their children's children for many generations. Let us not underestimate the capacity and potential power of today's children to perpetuate righteousness. No group of people in the Church is as receptive to the truth." This is another topic that's alway puzzled me, the whole why kids are so precious and important to the Lord. Sometimes I wonder why childhood is such a prized state, why it's so special, but then sometimes I think how much our childhoods impact our outlooks and our so much of our entire lives, and then I wonder how human beings can be trusted as parents at all. I have a friend who has a daughter who is good friends with my daughter and they go to some of the church functions together and I thought about why the mom isn't super interested and decided that it's probably because as adults we are pretty set in our ways, our beliefs and it kind of takes a lot to shake us up from that. My next thought was "well at least her daughter is getting to go and will hopefully be able to build a firm foundation in the gospel for her life." That's when I saw the connection, that she's different from her mother simply because of the stage of life that she's in, because she's a child she's more receptive to the Holy Ghost, more open to the lessons. After the children are blessed "they saw angels descending out of heaven as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them." Again, a puzzling event for me, but HN sheds some light on it, saying, "But minister is a two-way road. You talk back and forth. It's not just a vision or revelation- they come to chat and discuss. That's what ministry is- to take care of you, to explain things to you, to satisfy you... Notice, the angels play this key role in the Book of Mormon for the initiated at a very special time, but they appear just to children. They come for special reasons, and you can see why this is. Why don't angels come to us? Even Mary had to be assured that she wasn't unworthy. She felt guilty. Zacharias was terrified and struck dumb. To the shepherds in the field, the angels first had to say, 'don't be afraid,' and so forth. And on the Mount of Transfiguration they were 'sore afraid.' This is what's so sad about it- we could enjoy the presence and visitations of angels if we weren't so darn guilty. The case of the children proves it. They come to children because there's no one else in the condition to receive them. See, I wouldn't want to see an angel. As my grandfather said when he was in the First Presidency, 'If an angel would come through the door, I'd go right out the window; I couldn't face it.' No, we couldn't. The culture shock would be too much, but children can. We want angels to visit us, but they can only visit communities like this of these little children, to whom we give such a bad time. And then, he says, they actually saw this. This thing really happened." Pretty interesting perspective on these verses. My kids and I were listening to the part of 1 Nephi were L&L were visited by an angel and told to stop beating up their brothers and how they were almost completely unaffected by it. And I remembered that it said somewhere that testimonies aren't built on angelic visitations, they are built by the Holy Ghost. Just some interesting thoughts on angels and their earthly visitations.