"My Beloved Son"

Tonight, for family scripture study, we read several verses from various scriptures in which God the Father introduced His Son, Jesus Christ. In Matthew 3:17, He says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In Matthew 17:5, He says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." In Joseph Smith—History 1:17, He says, "This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" And in 3 Nephi 11:7, He says, "Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him."

All of these introductions are remarkably similar, with only a handful of phrases added or dropped in each one. "Hear Him" or "Hear ye Him" appears three out of four times, as does "in whom I am well pleased." The phrase "in whom I have glorified my name" appears only in 3 Nephi, shortly after the Atonement and Resurrection. But there is one phrase that is common to them all: "This is my beloved Son," or, phrased slightly differently in 3 Nephi, "Behold my beloved Son." Every time God introduces Jesus Christ, He introduces Him as "My Beloved Son."

What strikes me as remarkable about this phrase is that, as a moniker, it can apply only to Jesus, but as a descriptor, it applies to us all. We are all God's children. That's what He created us to be. We are all sons and daughters of God. And He loves us. He loves all His children. We, His children, are all beloved by Him. Each and every person who has ever, will ever, and will never be born is a beloved son or daughter of God.

Naturally, Jesus is special. Jesus is God's "only begotten Son." And I'd be surprised if Jesus wasn't especially beloved. After all, He's the morally perfect Savior of the world. After all He's done, I'd be shocked if He hadn't earned a handful of brownie points that the rest of us can't quite match. Still, it seems almost sacrilegious to say that God loves His children unequally. He has an infinite amount of love for all of us. It's difficult to say whether one person's infinite amount of love even could be different from another's.

Ultimately, though, I'm not sure how much it matters. Even though Jesus is God's "only begotten," we are His children, too. And even though God loves Jesus enough to call Him "beloved," that doesn't mean He doesn't also love us. Even if Jesus is more beloved or more closely related to God than we are, that doesn't change the fact that we are all beloved sons and daughters of God.

So, whenever you struggle with your identity or with feeling unloved, remember: You are a child of God, and He loves you.