The Wonder

As I read this week's Come, Follow Me lesson with my family, the last line in the introduction stood out to me: "...the marvelous work is the work of the Lord's church in the latter days, and the wonder is that He invites all of us, in spite of our weaknesses, to participate."

In a few places in the scriptures, the Lord reminds us that He is able to do His own work. And of course He can. He's the Lord. He's basically omnipotent. He can certainly do whatever He wants to do, and He can do it better than anyone else.

However, He doesn't. Rather than doing everything Himself, God invites us to help Him.  Of course, He's not asking for our help because we're better than Him at anything. We're not, and that's kind of the point. He asks for our help, not because He needs it, but because we do.

We need opportunities to do the Lord's work. They help us to grow and become more like Him in ways that other methods can't match. By doing the Lord's work in the Lord's way, we get a feel for the Lord's character, personality, priorities, and goals. By doing what He does, we learn more about who He is, and we become more like Him by practice.

Naturally, we still have a long way to go. We are very imperfect, so when we try to do the Lord's work, we do it imperfectly. Still, the mistakes we make pale in comparison with the progress we make. Mistakes can be made right through the power of the Atonement. Progress is eternal.

I am grateful that God entrusts part of His work to us, despite how frequently we prove unworthy of His trust. Much of His work seems too important to leave up to amateurs like us, yet God makes it work, usually working our shortcomings into His Master Plan. It's incredible to watch God work, and it's even more incredible that He invites us to help.