Thought of the Sunday? 17

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't write a spiritual thought on Sunday.  Since I am honest, it's because I forgot.  I didn't have a great first half of the day, but the second half of the day made up for it.  I was so involved with Easter-y things that I totally forgot.  So you can have your thought on Tuesday, which is also a good day for a spiritual thought.

During Easter we celebrate the Atonement of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, died on the cross, and was resurrected on the third day.  Easter Sunday is our celebration and commemoration of the Resurrection.  But what does resurrection mean to us right now?  Why is it important today?  What makes it meaningful to me?

One thought that I had a few years ago was that because of the resurrection I will stand before God with my present body.  My body with my personality (soul) and my eyes will look on God.  That seems amazing to me and it makes me so grateful for the body I have been given.  It is a feeling that is hard to describe but when I think on it, I feel joy at the thought of it occurring. 

A more scriptural look gives us the idea that if there was no resurrection, we would be doomed to follow our fallen brother, Lucifer.  I'm not exactly sure how this would work, but there's a lot I don't know.  This is found in 2 Nephi 9: 8-10:

"O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace!  For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil to rise no more.

And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness. 

O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit."

This is a pretty grim look at what might have happened if Jesus Christ hadn't volunteered to suffer and atone for us all.  Which brings me to my third idea.  Why is the resurrection important?  Because it is part of the Plan of Salvation.  God created a plan and we agreed to it and the Atonement and resurrection were a part of it.  It's important because it is part of the overall purpose of our life.  Thinking of being resurrected is, at times, a little odd, but, at times, it is wonderful.  I echo the words of Jacob in 2 Nephi 9: "O how great the goodness of our God."  He knows all, sees all, and works hard to bring us back to Him; we probably don't know how hard He works for us.  Our eternal life is His goal and it is a worthy goal.