Made Whole

 Sunday, June 1, 2025

June is my month to conduct Sacrament Meetings, and since today is the first Sunday in June, it is Fast & Testimoney Meeting. That means that as the one conducting the meeting, I share the first testimoney. Today when I shared my testimoney I felt inspired to talk about Evan. Lisa asked me to write it down. As best as I can remember, this is what I said.

Lisa and I hit a new milestone in our lives. We recently attended our oldest grandons graduation ceremony. We find it a bit surreal that we have a grandchild old enough to graduate. Actually, it is kind of surreal to me that we even have grandchildren.

Many of you probably remember Evan, he is the kid in the wheel chair that always sits in the front row with us when his family comes to visit. Evan got his first motorized wheel chair when he was two years old. If you’re like me, you’re wondering how a two year old can even drive a wheelchair. Well, let me tell you, a two year old drives pretty much like most two year olds walk. They bounce off walls a lot, except when a 200 pound wheel chair bounces off your wall, it does a lot more damage than when a two year old kid bounces off your wall. I still have a few dents to remind us of those times.

As I’ve been thinking about Evan graduating, it has brought back many memories of Evan growing up and the trials he has faced. I often thought about how Christ healed the sick and the lame, and I can’t help but wonder why Evan couldn’t be healed. I mean, Jesus made a lame man walk, why not Evan. Sure, I know all the intellectual reasons why. 

- Overcoming our trials is what makes us grow. 

- If life was easy then none of us would improve. 

- We all have our trials. Some of them are much worse than what Evan has had to live with and some of them are really only a minor nuisance, but we all have trials. 

- I also know that in the long run, Evans infirmities will be a blessing to him and to all of us who love him. 

Even still, while I know all of this, it just breaks my heart to see him sitting in his chair watching his friends take part in their many activities while he is on the sidelines looking on.

When Christ was teaching his disciples, he made a comment that I never gave much thought to until Evan came into my life. He told his deciples that “there were made widows in Israel, but Elisha was only sent to one of them”. There would have been thousands of widows during that famine, what happened to all of the others? They must have suffered terribly or maybe even starved to death. Why weren’t they saved? Then Christ said “that there were many lepers in Israel, but Elisha was only sent to Naaman.” Can you imagine what all the other lepers thought when they saw Naaman healed? Why did you heal him and not me?

And then, just this week, I was reading some of the talks from conference and I was especially struck by Sister Johnsons talk. She told the story of the ten lepers who came to Christ asking to be healed. Christ told them to go and show themselves to the Rabbi who would pronounce them clean. They all headed into town but only one of them turned back to express his gratitude to Jesus. Jesus told him that because of his faith, he was made whole. Sister Johnson then pointed out how ten lepers were healed but only one was made whole. She then said that if you can be healed, but not made whole, then you could be made whole and not healed.

I’m not exactly sure what it means to be made whole, but for me, I think it is the ability to find peace, joy, and comfort in my life, even as I face my own burdens. That is what the atonement is all about. It is my prayer that all of us can find joy in our lives, even as we struggle with the challenges we have been given. I know that my Lord loves me and he wants me to enjoy life, not just endure it.