That Thy Light May Be a Standard for the Nations

A letter to my brother from my mom on his 21st birthday in Mexico. Happy Birthday, James!!!!

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Dear James,

For nearly two years your “official” missionary picture (the one where you’re holding a Book of Mormon) has stood on a small end table in our family room. In 2012, the year you left for Veracruz on your mission, the church’s youth theme was the scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 115:5, ”Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations.” Sometime during that year I purchased a small print with that scripture on it and framed it. Because it became an inconvenience to haul that picture to and from church each week to display in the Young Women’s room, the framed scripture eventually made it’s way to the same end table in our home where rests your missionary photo.

Your missionary picture is no ordinary photograph. It greets all who enter the heart of our home. Your smiling, radiant, handsome face is the one that welcomes me when other family members are away at work or at school. Your photo has seen a lot of drama and a lot of arguments and even a few knock down drag out brawls between Elizabeth and Isaac over the last two years. But it has also seen a lot of family fun, family service, family meals, family home evenings, family prayer and family love. It has welcomed Annie, Spencer, and Jack home, witnessed the aging and passing of your beloved dog, Nera, and it has greeted grandparents, cousins, friends, and ward members. Yes, in your absence has been your missionary picture as a constant reminder that all is well in this world still full of truth, and light and goodness. It is no accident that my small framed scripture, “Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations”, ended up next to your shining, light-filled face.

For the past two years, you have been an ambassador of light bringing hope to a darkening world, and as long as there is light and hope, complete darkness cannot exist. Celebrating your 21st birthday as a missionary in Mexico is not the typical way an American young man celebrates his 21^st birthday. On your 21st, you overlook the lighthouse on Sacrifice Island of Veracruz, the lighthouse that is the symbol of your mission and symbolizes hope and light to those that are lost. “Look to the lighthouse of the Lord….There is no fog so dense, no light so dark, no gale so strong,…but what the lighthouse of the Lord can rescue.” (Thomas S. Monson)

Thank you, my missionary son, for being a bright light to our family and to the rest of the world, particularly the people of Mexico.  “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5: 14-16)

With all my love on your 21^st Birthday,

Mom