The Hope of Spring

I just watched a robin taking a bath in a big puddle in our driveway! The robins are back! I always wondered where they go until spring, but at any rate, they are here now. We went for a ride yesterday out to the West Fields and saw the Canadian geese pairing up at the water's edge. As I look out the window at the snow covered fields and mountains, I wonder how they know that it is time to come home and start new life. They signify that there is hope that spring will soon come again.
I lost a dear friend this past week, John Wesley Bright. The heavens have received a joyous, lovely person who will soon be leading the heavenly choirs in beautiful music! The signs for hope in the resurrection surround us. One being that Christ told his disciples He would be "raised in three days"....and they witnessed that He was. Another sign being that by Joseph Smith's words, "we saw Him, even at the right hand of God!" And the Spirit has witnessed to me that he did see and talk to the resurrected Christ. The reality of the resurrection goes beyond a hope; the signs are there and I am as sure of it as I am that, in a few weeks, spring will be here in full bloom.
Never lose hope that spring will come or that you will see loved ones that have gone ahead. The resurrection is real and we will all be together again as resurrected beings in a place where it is always spring!