Atoning Blood of Jesus Christ

I hate needles; When I was younger, and it was time for me to get a shot, I would breakdown.Why I have such a fear of being stabbed by a needle? I don't know, but it has stuck with me. While at college, many of my friends were participating in a blood drive, something I had never done before because I never got the courage to allow a complete stranger to stick a needle in me and take something vital to my body. I decided though, that it was going to be different this time; I was going to give blood. Still apprehensive about it, I convinced one of my roommates to do it with me. We got down to the center and of course some of my friends were there also for the blood drive. My roommate backed down from giving blood, but for me, I could not, my friends wouldn't let me. As I sat there filling out the donor sheet, fear grew within me as I got ever so closer to actually giving blood. A finger prick and later, and I was in the chair; The needle now drawing blood from me. Moments later, I was released and given free range on all the juice and snacks I could eat.



As I pondered about this experience, I thought of our Savior, Jesus Christ. While in the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ offered a prayer "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42) Christ must have had just the smallest idea what type of pain he was about to face as he took upon himself all the sins, pains and afflictions of everyone who lives, will live and ever lived, and it frightened him, just as giving blood frightened me. In this moment, Christ, understanding that we all were counting on Him to go through, sacrificed His will. In my own little Gethsemane before giving blood, I too had to sacrifice for a better cause. As I continued to think about my experience that day, I realized that I gave my blood so that someone in need could be saved. I thought back to our Savior, why was He willing to endure the pain at Gethsemane, and then to die on the Cross of Calvary?

He loved us; He knew the good that was going to come from it. Because of His willingness to sacrifice himself and to perform the atonement, he opened the doors to mercy, he allowed a way for us to be saved from our sins. 

O remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world. (Helaman 5:9)

I found out that day that what this scripture teaches is true. Just as the blood I donated could save a life, It is through Christ we are saved. I understood just a little of His joy after the atonement, I was proud of myself for not backing down and doing good for someone who may have needed my blood to save them from death, but Christ did much more than I could have down, for He not only saved us from death by providing a way to be resurrected, He also gave us a way to overcome spiritual death through repentance.

Christ loves each one of us more than we can comprehend, and wants us to repent so that we can use that great gift, the Atonement, so let us show our love and appreciation for our Savior by using the gift of repentance so that we can be made clean by His atoning blood.