The other day my oldest daughter asked me what was on my “Bucket List.” I told her nothing. She didn’t believe me.
“Don’t you have anything you want to do or see before you die?”
“No, not really. I’m perfectly content to be living just like I am. I don’t need to see or do anything else to be happy.”
She still wasn’t sure she could accept that. After all, having and completing a “Bucket List’ is the popular thing to do in today’s society.
Well, today the thought came to me that I don’t have an earthly “Bucket List” but, in the next life there are some things I want to see and do.
I want to stand in front of Jesus Christ and have Him be pleased with my efforts. I want to express my appreciation for His sacrifice and my deep and abiding sorrow for the burden my sins and weaknesses added to Him.
I want to personally go up to the Prophet Joseph Smith and express my gratitude, appreciation and admiration for all he endured on my behalf.
I would love to sit down in a meeting with Brigham Young and listen to that man speak, and learn from him. I would thank him and tell him my great love for Church history came, in part, because I studied his words.
I want to meet Captain Moroni--a man I have long admired for his courage, intelligence and compassion. I would thank him for the way he has inspired me and so many others.
I think it would be great to walk into a reunion of the stripling warriors, feel of their commitment and courage, and visit with their leader, Helaman. I would want to thank them for their willingness to step in and risk everything.
I would love to find out what made Teancum tick. He was so bold.
And who wouldn’t want to meet such a great and forgiving man as Pahoran and tell him how touched they were by his words to Captain Moroni?
Nephi is another man I would love to meet—Nephi and his brother, Sam. We read so little about Sam but Nephi obviously loved him deeply. I want to tell Sam and Nephi that I admired their brotherly relationship—that the quietness of the record actually spoke strongly to me and I appreciate their example.
Same with the Prophet and his all his brothers; including Alvin. We know so little about Alvin except that he had great faith in his younger brother and I want to express appreciation for that example of confidence.
From more modern times I would love to meet General Robert E. Lee. He was one of the greatest men in U.S. history and did so much good for our nation yet he is too often misunderstood. I would like to tell him I have so admired him and appreciated his sacrifices.
I would love to meet the angel who physically reached through the veil and saved my life on my mission. All I saw were his hands but I want to know who those hands belonged to and what personal connection he had to me. I want to thank him.
I want to see my grandmother and grandfather together. My grandfather died when I was an infant. During the next 40 years my grandmother never stopped loving him or missing him. I imagine they are very happy to be together now. That is what I imagine a happy marriage is like and I want to thank them for the image they have painted for me.
I also never met my husband’s grandparents but I would like to. The last act of his maternal grandfather in this life was to share a prayer with his wife as they served a mission together. After the prayer he told his wife he loved her, kissed her gently and collapsed to the floor from a sudden heart attack. Two years later she called her children together, told them their father had come to her and said he was coming to bring her home in two days. She told her children she loved them, gave them final words of love, advice and testimony and died two days later. What a great example they were to their children and their grandchildren and I want to thank them for that example and the way it has influenced my marriage.
And there are other people I would love to meet, others I would love to thank for influences they had on me that they didn’t even know. Still there are others I want to ask forgiveness from.
So, I guess I do have a list of things I would love to see and do, but they are more sacred and personal than visiting a foreign city or trying some extreme sport.
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