As we celebrate Father’s Day it feels natural to remember our Heavenly Father. Others much wiser and closer to God than me have taught volumes about Him. I rely on their words as I ponder the long distance relationship which stretches my heartstrings across the veil to my premortal home.

 If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. – C.S. Lewis

It is this stretching of eternal ties which makesthe trials of life feel more intense while at the same time strengthening as I remember God’s confidence in my ability to navigate these intensities.

 Nothing is going to startle us more when we pass through the veil to the other side than to realize how well we know our Father and how familiar his face is to us. – President Benson

Although I have forgotten for this brief time the contours of His face, when I kneel in humble prayer my face is before Him and I feel His heart drawn out to me, even when He won’t grant my desires because it would not result in eternal good. This is a trust I have in Him, or try to have, when I don’t understand what is happening. He continues on this faithful path of improving me, even when I rebel like a stubborn child wanting only candy and kisses.

You might prefer that God simply tell you how well you are doing. But he loves you, wants you to be with him, and knows you must have a mighty change in your heart, through faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, humble repentance, and the making and keeping of sacred covenants. That’s why the Proverbs record this: ‘My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.’ (Prov. 3:11–12.) –Elder Eyring

He is always working for my good, my improvement, my progression, my return to Him.

This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Moses 1:39

The immortality I will eventually enjoy with Him means that I will have a body like His, not only in his image as it is now, but glorified and lasting in perfection. It is difficult to comprehend this, but already this body is something beyond my comprehension in its imperfect state.

Our bodies are sacred. They were created in the image of God. They are marvelous, the crowning creation of Deity. No camera has ever matched the wonder of the human eye. No pump was ever built that could run so long and carry such heavy duty as the human heart. The ear and the brain constitute a miracle. … These, with others of our parts and organs, represent the divine, omnipotent genius of God. -President Gordon B. Hinckley (“Be Ye Clean,” Ensign, May 1996, 48).

All of this world is designed for me, a child of God, to share with my brothers and sisters. This world was created by Him as a place for us to work out our salvation, even providing a Savior – the keystone of the Plan of Salvation – who shows us the path back to our Heavenly Father. Walking in his footsteps I look hopefully ahead for blessings and progression.

Without God, repentance would have little meaning, and forgiveness would be both unnecessary and unreal. If there were no God, life would indeed be meaningless; … we might find justification in an urge to live only for today, to ‘eat, drink and be merry,’ to dissipate, to satisfy every worldly desire. If there were no God there would be no redemption, no resurrection, no eternities to anticipate, and consequently no hope. -President Spencer W. Kimball (The Miracle of Forgiveness, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1969, pp. 3–4.)

It can be difficult keep a true view of Heavenly Father, in all of His perfection and eternal love, when this world is filled with imperfection, sin, abuse, pain, and destruction.

Eternal means ‘without beginning or end,’ so the encircling of His love is there for us every day. Remember, it’s constant—even when we don’t recognize it. I love Nephi’s description of this great gift: ‘The love of God … sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things … and the most joyous to the soul.’ (1Nephi 11:22-23) –Bonnie D. Parkin

When my test of mortality is over I will return to Him, all that was wrong will be made right.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. -Revelations 21:4-7

At sunset, heaven and earth hold me in an embrace and I hear a whisper, “I am your Eternal Father, you are my child.”

photo credits:  Vinoth Chandar via Compfight; lds.org; Adam Evans via Compfight; Mikey G Ottawa via Compfight;  Vinoth Chandar via Compfight,  Kevin Dooley via Compfight