Vision

 Vision

There is a verse in the Bible that goes something like this. Where there is no vision the people perish.

This week we studied in the book of Acts about the centurion Cornelius who had a vision.

Both my wife and I have recently undergone cataract surgery. Our vision was impaired to the point that neither of us could read. We still have trouble seeing in the dark, so we don’t drive, especially after dark. So it may be that if we did drive we would perish.

Of course the scripture was not really referring to being unable to drive at night. It was referring to spiritual vision.

Two stories come to mind. My wife’s ancestor Sarah Minton McMullin Henderson was the first of her line to join the church. One night she had a dream. Some may call it a vision. She saw two men coming to her house.

The missionaries were living in a populated town and would then go out in the Florida countryside to contact people in the rural area. They would walk and visit each farmhouse along the country road. This day they walked about 26 miles without stopping at any houses as was their custom. They just kept walking. They eventually came to a farm house with a rail fence. As they approached Sarah was sitting on the porch and called to them to come in and teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ as she had been instructed in her dream. She even recognized their faces from her dream.

At about the same time in Georgia Sarah’s sister had a dream. She saw two men at the town’s railroad station. She was told that they could teach her the true gospel of Jesus Christ. The next morning she had the same vision. She asked her husband to go to the station and invite the men to come home with him. They taught her the gospel and she, like Cornelius was baptized.

We see that the Lord is no respector of persons in any age. He will touch the hearts of those who are receptive. As a result of these two visions there are many who have and are living the gospel.

 

You may ask, why don't all of us have visions or dreams like this.  All of you have the gospel of Christ. You just have to have the vision to live according to Christ's commandments.  You may be the instrument of bringing the gospel to someone that needs it.  This is the vision that you must have.  

 

Keep your eyes open!

Love,

Grandpa

 Times when I could have died 

When I was 6 months old I contracted scarlet fever. The death rate for children under one year was 50%. I did not have any complications. A number of the survivors developed heart problems that caused early death.

When I was a junior in high school I was riding with some friends in a car driven by Ronald Carey. We were on the Baldwin Creek road and the car missed a turn and rolled over two or three times and went through a fence. There were no seatbelts at that time. I was the only one injured and had a broken little finger on my right hand.

The summer after my senior year in highschool I worked for the forest service. One night they called me to join the fire fighting crew to help fight the Dishpan Butte fire. We drove up to Dickinson Park and found the trail. It was getting dark and we were soon walking in the dark. We had a Coleman lantern and flashlights to help us follow the trail. The person carrying the lantern stumbled and broke the mantle,so that source of light was gone. I was in the lead and was unsure I was on the right path. I stopped and the person with a flashlight came up and I found I was on top of a big boulder. It was about fifty feet to the ground below. I doubt that I would have survived the fall. We found the trail and spent the night putting out the fire.

The following summer I was working again for the forest service. They only had enough money to fund one person for the trail crew,so I was hired to clean the trails from Sinks canyon to Dickinson Park. I would work ten days and then I would have four days off. I would buy groceries to last that period, pack them on to the pack saddle and get the horse from the ranger station barn in Sinks canyon and lead the horse to a campsite in a meadow about halfway between Sinks and Dickinson park. I would tie up the horse and walk the trails clearing up dead branches and trees that had fallen across the trail and make sure that the fords across the streams were clear for foot tragic or had bridges. One night I was sleeping in my tent when I was awakened by a noise and a bear was in my tent. I grabbed my fishing pole and hit him on the nose and the bear ran off into the night. I could have been mauled or killed by the bear.

While I was on my mission in Berlin we lived in the Charlottenburg chapel. This was just off the big street that went straight to the Brandenberg Gate.
One day I was riding my bike and turned the corner. There was a bus parked at a stop and there was no turn signal flashing. I rode close to the bus because there was no bicycle path in order to avoid any cars coming in my direction behind me. Just as I got to the front of the bus the driver opened his door and I slammed into the door at full speed. I did not fall or hit my head and was not thrown to the ground. Thus avoiding serious injury or death.

The next incident occurred in Florida. We took our family down to Florida to visit the Clark grandparents. We went to the beach and into the water. The undertow caught me and carried me out. I tried to get back. I did not have a life jacket and fortunately Aaron came and helped us get to shore.

Time passed and Alice and I had gone down to Salt Lake to pick up some marble for our fire place and an electric typewriter of my parents that had been there for repair. We picked up doctor Whiting’s mother to bring her to Lander for a visit. As we were going through South Pass and down Beaver hill we hit a patch of snow on top of ice on the road. The car fishtailed and went off the left lane and high centered on the drop off to the canyon. A snowplow came along and seeing our plight pulled us back onto the road. Had we gone over the edge we would have been killed. 

 

There may have been other times that I was not aware of.  I thank the Lord for preserving my life.