Nauvoo Exodus
People ask, “What do you do with all of your ‘free’ time?”
Well, it’s true that we get through with our formal assignments at 1:00-PM, but that means that we get up at 5 for a 7 o’clock start time. Patching and painting for 6-hours isn’t as easy as it was when we were in our 30’s, so lunch will often include an hour or so of ‘relaxing’.
There is the weekly grocery shopping, training, and other assignments that come along, and then there are the special things that come our way as kind of an ‘extra’ for being in Nauvoo. One of those things, we participated in today, is the annual commemoration of the exodus of the Saints from Nauvoo and the surrounding areas.
President and Sister Dalton presided over the occasion and Sister Dalton spoke for a few minutes at the Pioneer Memorial, where Parley Street meets the water of the Mississippi. She spoke of the Lord’s plan and his timing, and how the Prophet Joseph and Church leaders understood that Nauvoo would be a temporary haven.
I am one of those people that likes to play the ‘what if’ game. What if the Prophet and his brother hadn’t been murdered by a lawless mob? What if the Saints had found a peaceful place in Texas or California? And what if their migration had taken place at a time of their choosing, without the relentless persecution of the intolerant? From my spec of a viewpoint, without that persecution, the group that I call ‘Pioneers’, the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, may not have become what we revere them to be.
They were forged by the persecution, the loss of…everything, the need to rely on each other, the weather, sickness, and hardship of a forced exodus in February of 1846.
Our commemorative walk on main street, turning down Parley Street to where it meets the river was a gesture of honoring those who left their homes and their city 178-years ago. I carried with me the name of my 3rd Great Grandfather, Charles Lamone Green. On the back of this tag, I wrote the names of his entire family that made the trek to the Salt Lake Valley.
The stories of those Pioneers are written and rehearsed, and they always touch my heart, but compassion and imagination will never enable me to ‘walk in their shoes’.
Glimpse of Nauvoo
While in those peaceful quiet moments
When my thoughts freely fall without restraints
A tranquil picture will come into view
Of Nauvoo the home of the Latter-Day Saints
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An image of growth of toil and focus
The brilliance of light in the darkening storm
A vision of sober unshakable giants
As they watched the billowing clouds take form
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An example of endurance courage and faith
I think of their struggles and their day-to-day lives
Their hopes and dreams are alive today
In our hearts and our minds their character thrives
