God is Love

     Had an interesting experience today, but first a quick explanation of terms. In the LDS Church, we use the word testimony to refer to the knowledge and beliefs that a person holds. We often share our testimonies in our worship services. A person might say something like, "I know that Heavenly Father loves his children" or "I know that Jesus Christ died for our sins." A testimony can be very personal, multilayered, and vary in strength with different aspects of the gospel. For example, a person might have a strong testimony of the power of prayer but struggle with studying the scriptures frequently. Testimonies grow through time and experience, becoming the summation of our lives experiences and interactions with Heavenly Father and his work. 

     With that, one of the areas of my testimony that has always felt a little weaker is knowing Jesus Christ. I believe in Jesus, his miracles, death and atonement, but I have always felt that my personal relationship with him was different - less clear, more amorphous - than my relationship with Heavenly Father. You could say that I don't feel like I know Jesus as well as I do the Father.

     Earlier today, I was reading an article in the Ensign magazine - a monthly publication of the LDS church with gospel messages. The article was written by a woman who shared similar feelings to me regarding her testimony of Jesus Christ. With prayer and study, she felt inspired to serve others, direction that seemed somewhat unrelated to her. But by following that guidance, she came to the conclusion expressed in 1st John 4:16, "God is love." The understanding I gained from her experience was this: we come to know Christ through imitation, by doing what he would do and thus feeling what he feels - knowing him by becoming more like him. 

     "[W]e know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him," 1st John 3:2.