To Live Again—Forever

By Sandra C. Nelson

In Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).

I realized that Todd was awful gloomy that day. At first he didn’t even want to come out and play with me, and I’m his best friend! Then, after a little coaxing from his mother, he did come out.

“How about playing some ball?” I asked hopefully. “We can try your new bat! I’ll even pitch to you first!”

“No, I don’t feel like it,” Todd said, stuffing his fists into his jeans pockets and kicking a stone off the sidewalk. “I don’t feel like doing anything!”

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “You don’t ever turn down a game of ball, especially if I’m willing to pitch to you first. Are you sick?”

“I just don’t feel too great. My grandma died,” Todd answered, quickly brushing away a tear.

“Oh. I’m sorry. I guess you miss her a lot.”

“Miss her! I’ll never see her again!”

“Yes, you will,” I said. “She just went to the spirit world.”

“The what?”

“The spirit world,” I repeated. “When people die, that’s where they go.”

“Will I really see her again? And can I visit on weekends like I used to?”

“Not now—because you’re still alive. But after you die, you’ll go to the spirit world too.”

“Really?” Todd asked excitedly.

“Will she make me my favorite chocolate cake?”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” I said. “But I do know that someday everyone will be resurrected.”

“What does that mean?” Todd asked.

“That means that your spirit and your body will get back together, and you will live again!”

“How do you know all this?” Todd asked, suddenly suspicious.

“My mother taught us that in family home evening last Monday.”

“So you didn’t make it all up?”

“No. Honest!”

“OK. I still miss her, but maybe I can play just one game with you.”

“Great! Let’s go!” I thought that I had convinced him and that everything would be OK, but that evening Todd came over with his parents. They seemed really mad. I’m in trouble now, I thought, so I tried to hide upstairs.

“Jamie,” my mother called.

I had to come down and face whatever it was that I had done.

“Jamie,” Todd’s mother began, “today you told Todd that he would see his grandmother again. Try as we may, he won’t listen to anything different that we try to tell him. Todd’s grandmother is dead, and there is no way that we’ll see her again. We need you to tell Todd that.”

“I can’t,” I said softly. Todd looked at me, and I knew that I was in real trouble.

“What do you mean you can’t?”

She was really upset with me, but Mom saved me. “What he means,” my mom began as she stepped forward and placed her hands on my shoulders, “is that we believe that Todd will see his grandmother again. And so will all of you.”

“But, Lisa,” Todd’s mother pleaded with my mother, “how can you know this? What proof do you have?”

“I’ll show you.” She let go of my shoulders, got her Bible, and thumbed the pages until she stopped and read this passage aloud: “‘And [they] shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation’” (John 5:29).

Todd’s dad jumped into the conversation then: “Lisa, is that a quote from your Golden Bible?’”

“Oh, you mean the Book of Mormon. No, this is the King James Version of the Bible,” Mom replied.

“Well,” said Todd’s mom. “That’s the same Bible that we use. I wonder why we never saw that before.”

Mom was on a roll now! “We will all be resurrected as Jesus Christ was, which means that we will all live again, just as Jamie was telling Todd. In 1 Corinthians 15:21–22, it says, ‘For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

“‘For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.’” [1 Cor. 15:21–22]

They just stood there in silence for a moment; then Todd’s mom began quietly, “I guess I owe you an apology, Jamie. I never knew that was all in the Bible.”

“That’s OK,” I said.

“Does that mean,” began Todd, brightening again,” does that mean that Jamie was right and that I will see Grandma again?”

“It seems so,” said Todd’s mom.

“We’ll have to do some studying. We’ll probably be back to ask Jamie and his folks some more questions.”

“Great!” I said. “Anytime.”

Well, that’s how my day ended. Things turned out OK after all, and you know what? Todd’s family had the missionaries over the other night! They invited us over too. It was really great to see the missionaries teach my best friend the gospel. I hope that someday I can find the right scriptures quickly, as Mom and the missionaries do. Mom says that it just takes practice. So here it is—I’ve found my first scripture for you: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

Illustrated by Scott Greer