How Heavenly Father Feels

Elder Boyd K. Packer in General Conference said: "I have studied much in the scriptures and have taught from them. I have read much from what the prophets and apostles have spoken. They have had a profound influence upon me as a man and as a father. But most of what I know about how our Father in Heaven really feels about us, His children, I have learned from the way I feel about my wife and my children and their children. This I have learned at home. I have learned it from my parents and from my wife's parents, from my beloved wife and from my children, and can therefore testify of a loving Heavenly Father and of a redeeming Lord." (General Conference Oct. 1998)

I can't think of a more profound way of putting it! Think about who is saying this? There aren't many men living who have studied more in the scriptures or taught more from them. He rubs shoulders with the most elect men on earth every day of his life. He leads a most remarkable life! Yet, one of the most profound truths Christ's gospel has to offer, namely the immensity of our Father in Heaven's love for us, his children, cannot be taught from the scriptures or by the prophets as profoundly as it is taught from our own homes.

Is this not what it's all about anyway? Are our families not our most precious possessions? Is not this life of loving, learning, hurting, weeping, embracing, and overcoming, alongside our families, nothing more than a magnificent dress-rehearsal preparing us for the big stage? Are we not learning to become as God is and to love as God does?

What a wonderful plan of true happiness we have laid before us by an all-loving, ever-loving Father in Heaven!