Let me share a story with you suggesting how soon and how unexpectedly those tomorrows can come and in some cases how little time you may have to make hasty, belated preparation.
On the afternoon of Wednesday, September 30, 1998, just two years ago last week, a Little League football team in Inkom Idaho, was out on the field for its midweek practice.
They had completed their warm-ups and were starting to run a few plays from scrimmage.
Dark clouds were gathering, as they sometimes do in the fall, and it began to rain lightly, but that was of no concern to a group of boys who loved playing football.
Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, an absolutely deafening crack of thunder split the air, inseparable from the flash of lightning that illuminated, literally electrified, the entire scene.
At that very moment a young friend of mine, A. J. Edwards, then a deacon in the Portneuf Ward of the McCammon Idaho Stake, was ready for the ball on a handoff that was sure to be touchdown in this little intersquad bit of horseplay.
But the lightning that had illuminated earth and sky struck A. J. Edwards from the crown of his football helmet to the soles of his shoes.
The impact of the strike stunned all the players, knocking a few to the ground, leaving one player temporarily without his sight and virtually all the rest of the players dazed and shaken.
Instinctively they started running for the concrete pavilion adjacent to the park.
Some of the boys began to cry.
Many of them fell to their knees and began to pray.
Through it all, A. J. Edwards lay motionless on the field.
Brother David Johnson of the Rapid Creek Ward, McCammon Idaho Stake, rushed to the player's side.
He shouted to coach and fellow ward member Rex Shaffer, "I can't get a pulse.
He's in cardiac arrest."
These two men, rather miraculously both trained emergency medical technicians, started a life-against-death effort in CPR.
Cradling A. J.'s head as the men worked was the young defensive coach of the team, 18-year-old Bryce Reynolds, a member of the Mountain View Ward, McCammon Idaho Stake.
As he watched Brother Johnson and Brother Shaffer urgently applying CPR, he had an impression.
I am confident it was a revelation from heaven in every sense of the word.
He remembered vividly a priesthood blessing that the bishop had once given his grandfather following an equally tragic and equally life-threatening accident years earlier.
Now, as he held this young deacon in his arms, he realized that for the first time in his life he needed to use his newly conferred Melchizedek Priesthood in a similar way.
In anticipation of his 19th birthday and forthcoming call to serve a mission, Young Bryce Reynolds had been ordained an elder just 39 days earlier.
Whether he audibly spoke the words or only uttered them under his breath, Elder Reynolds said: "A.J. Edwards, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power and authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood which I hold, I bless you that you will be OK.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."
As Bryce Reynolds closed that brief but fervent blessing offered in the language of an 18-year-old, A. J. Edwards drew his first renewed breath.
The ongoing prayers, miracles, and additional priesthood blessings of that entire experience--including a high-speed ambulance drive to Pocatello and a near-hopeless LifeFlight to the burn center at the University of Utah--all of that the Edwards family can share with us at a later time.
It is sufficient to say that a very healthy and very robust A. J. Edwards is in the audience tonight with his father as my special guests.
I also recently talked on the telephone with Elder Bryce Reynolds, who has been serving faithfully in the Texas Dallas Mission for the past 17 months.
I love these two wonderful young men.
-Jeffrey R. Holland -"Sanctify Yourselves" -October 2000 General Conference
Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
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