The Only Love That Comes Close

Despite what I said yesterday about latching onto quotes and taking them out of context, I believe that there are some quotes, perhaps many, that don't need context to be profound and worth studying. Case in point: In the first talk of the Saturday Morning Session of the April 2017 General Conference, President Eyring said "Though earthly families are far from perfect, they give God’s children the best chance to be welcomed to the world with the only love on earth that comes close to what we felt in heaven—parental love."

I believe that there's a reason why God goes by the title of "Heavenly Father." Earthly families create excellent parallels that help us understand God's love for us and why He does what He does. I'm not sure we can comprehend how much God loves us, but we can have some idea how much our earthly parents love us, and (I assume) we can keenly feel the love we have for our children. Having some grasp of the extent and power of parental love, we gain a frame of reference for imagining our Heavenly Father's love for us.

My earthly family isn't perfect. I don't think anyone's is. But I feel a good deal of love and support from my family, and it makes me think, "If my mortal family loves me this much, how much must my Heavenly Father love me?" Of course, there are differences. My Heavenly Father has a more complete knowledge of my sins and failings, and He has a lower tolerance for some of my eccentricities than some of my family members do, but I imagine that He still loves me at least as much as my mother does, and that feels like a fairly decent amount of love.

I'm blessed to have such a strong sense of love in my life, and I'm grateful that it helps me understand God's love for me. Without my family, I'm not sure I would have any real concept of what love is, and I certainly wouldn't have any way to comprehend how much love God has for me. I am richly blessed by God's love, and a big part of how I know that is because I am also richly blessed by parental love.