In Idaho Falls, there's a beautiful airport.
Near the airport is another very useful and beautiful part of the city, Freeman Park. Looking down the river from the park, the majestic Idaho Falls Temple can be seen, white and clean, standing on high ground. Both of these beautiful, useful places-- the regional airport and Freeman Park-- used to be sanitary landfills. A sanitary landfill is where garbage is buried and the land is reclaimed.
The definition of "reclaimed" is to recall from wrong or improper conduct, to rescue from an undesirable state.
I have lived in Idaho Falls nearly my whole life. I have contributed a lot of garbage to those landfills over the course of more than 50 years. What would the city fathers think if, on a given day, I showed up on one of the grassy fields in Freeman Park with a backhoe and started digging large holes?
When they asked me what I was doing, I would respond, "I wanted to dig up the old garbage that I had made over the years." I suspect that they would tell me there was no way to identify my personal garbage, that it had been claimed and buried long ago. I suppose they would wonder why anyone would want to destroy something so beautiful and useful in an attempt to dig up old garbage. Is it possible to reclaim a life that, through reckless abandon, has become so strewn with garbage that it appears that the person is unforgivable? What about the person who has changed their life but just can't forgive themselves?
The prophet Alma taught that the Son of God suffered according to the flesh, that He might take upon Him the sins of His people, that He might blot out their transgressions according to the power of His deliverance. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is available to each of us.
It can clean, reclaim, and sanctify even you.
There is no habit, no addiction, no rebellion, no transgression exempted from the promise of complete forgiveness. That is the promise of the Atonement of Christ. When we gratefully accept and use this precious gift, we can enjoy the beauty and usefulness of our lives that God has reclaimed through His infinite love and the Atonement of His Son and our brother, Jesus Christ.
