Timothy would have been 11 years old today and I'm quite sure spoiled rotten. He would have spent many a nap on the bosom of Grandmother, toddled behind his Granddaddy as he walked out to get the newspaper, learned cooking and gardening skills from his mother and how to be a great scout and handyman helper with his dad all the while brushing his blond curls away from his sweaty brow. Lastly, he would have been lovingly passed around like a big bag of peanut M&M's between his sisters and his brothers and his aunts and his uncle and surrounded by a very large circle of cousins.
But we never got the opportunity to know Timothy. For some reason, he was too pure to live on earth. The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered, instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again.”
After all these years, I still reflect upon the day he left us. I still get very emotional when I remember with honor the task Nancy requested from me. It is by far the hardest gift of service I've ever done in my life, but what an extreme blessing it was. (I wrote about that day in my blog entitled "In Remembrance of Timothy" dated 5/31/08).
How grateful I am for the understanding of the gospel and knowing that we can truly be together forever. What a wonderful experience it will be to someday again be able to meet Timothy.
