The Elect

     The hands of death swoops away six of her children before her.

     The arms of the disenchanted are wet with the blood of her husband.

     The mouths of betrayers tear her trust and kindness.

     The minds of the robbers focus to demolish her living.

     The feet of a grieving wife--later widow-- trod along a forlorn road, uncertain of the coming future.

"Death be longing, but it cometh not (Job 3:21)."

Crossing Mississippi

     The face of discouragement and abandonment comes to mind when hearing such tragedy occur in one's life.  An absence of sanity would have resulted in a normal person.  It's a life that no man would wish upon anyone else.  However, this is the price of discipleship that Emma Smith had paid-- exorbitantly high for many.

     While reading through a church magazine*, I came across an article entailing the life of Emma Smith.  In it, a relative describes her grandmother like this:

1841

     “Her eyes were brown and sad. She would smile with her lips but to me, as small as I was, I never saw the brown eyes smile. I asked my mother one day, why don’t Grandma laugh with her eyes like you do and my mother said because she has a deep sorrow in her heart” (Jones).

     She faced a gargantuan load of difficulties even after the reorganization of the church.  Her later son would be institutionalized in a state asylum and her daughter would later succumb to cancer.  During this time of melancholy for someone who had gone through so much, "no one dared approach to offer comfort, because they did not know how to touch the depth of sorrow evidenced by the tears that coursed down her cheeks" (Jones).


     The article about Emma Smith concludes asking several rhetorical questions on why it was that she would regularly wrench in grief.  To me, it seems quite obvious.  To her, I'm sure it was as well.

Nauvoo

      Emma Smith, even with the fires of adversity set to consume her, had kept her character-- a woman whose parents envisioned her to distance her from the man that she would later marry, she had overcome what many would have deemed impossibly depressing.  Many would criticize her lack of faith that came with staying put in Nauvoo, but one cannot deny that her contributions in the Church had led to the exodus, where many lives would then be blessed.

     She's one of the most admirable people I have read about.  In fact, the women in the Church have all played gigantic roles in its advancement-- without them, the Church wouldn't be so.  More than anyone else in Church history, the desolate solace that emanates from the being that is Emma Smith has been an example to me-- of one who had seen everything around her collapse yet still trod on.

     With a steadfast endurance, we too must push on through our problems.  Seeing such a person like her had given me hope in the most despondent of times.  I can tell you that this person holds a special place in my heart not because she has the same birthday as me, but through the grace that she held on to through the grief that she suffered.

*If you're interested in reading that same article, this is the link.