Following a quarterly Primary activity on missionary work that three of my grandchildren attended, I queried them about what they each had learned. My grandson said that he learned about the kind of clothes missionaries have to wear. His sister thought eating “weird” food might be hard. But Emma, then four years old and the youngest of the three, said simply, “Heavenly Father helps us do our work, and we help Heavenly Father do His work.”
Perhaps Emma thought her answer applied just to missionary work. What she did not understand at the time was how profound her statement was. She likely did not know Moses 1:39: “For behold, this is my work and my glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” She also probably didn’t realize that our work is to keep the commandments as we are told in D&C 11:20: “Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength.”
One of those commandments is to love and serve others as the Savior instructed: “Thou shalt love the Lord they God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love they neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39).
The scriptures are replete with counsel to serve others, such as Mosiah 2:17: “And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God”; Mosiah 4:15, “Ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another”; Galatians 5:13, “By love serve one another”; Matthew 25:40, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
An oft-quoted statement of Mother Teresa is, “I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
President Spencer W. Kimball told us that we are the instruments through which God works to bless His children: “We need to help those we seek to serve to know for themselves that God not only loves them, but he is ever mindful of them and their needs,” he said. “God does notice us and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person the he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom.”[1]
My dear uncle, Dr. Robert D. Matheson, died at the age of 91 in December 2010. His life was a life of service. During his years as a surgeon, he helped many people through their health issues. More than that, he connected with them on a “personal, caring level.”
He often made house calls as well as hospital rounds. His daughter Mary Ann Strong said, “He brought a wonderful, medical mind, faith, and a gift of healing with him, but in addition he brought a love and respect for others that knew no boundaries of class, income, race, or color. He treated everyone with kindness.” Dr. Matheson rendered a lot of medical Church service in addition to helping his large extended family, and charged very little or nothing to many who needed care but didn’t have adequate financial resources.
Uncle Bob also served in many ward callings as well as serving in the Salt Lake Temple for 40 years. His greatest service was in his home as he assisted his wife, June, who had had polio in the early 1950s. June spent 55 years in a wheelchair, and together they raised a family of six children.
A neighbor made a bench for the Matheson cabin. On this bench he put a plaque inscribed with the words: “To Bob — God’s helper.”
Wouldn’t we each be honored to have it said of us that we were “God’s helper”?
[1] Spencer W. Kimball, “Small Acts of Service,”Ensign, December 1974, 4.
