“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” My sister shared a message about the importance of taking upon ourselves the yoke of our Savior Jesus Christ, but Autocorrect turned yoke into yolk and it got me thinking about the Yolk of Jesus Christ. An egg yolk contains a ton of vitamins and minerals, all of the egg’s fat and half of its protein. In a fertilized egg, the yolk envelops the developing embryo and provides all of the nutrients it needs to grow and become stronger. To take upon ourselves the Yolk of the Lord is to completely immerse ourselves in the nurturing and life-giving medium of His Grace. Taking upon ourselves the Yolk of the Lord means filling our souls with all of His love and warmth and strength and goodness. And from a culinary perspective, egg yolks can be used as emulsifiers, which can bind together two liquids that don’t normally mix, like oil and water, creating something entirely new that combines the best of both worlds. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He was able to bind together both the demands of Justice and the demands of Mercy, emulsifying them into something new and wonderful that combines the best of both worlds. When we take upon us the Yolk of the Lord, we can emulsify our Godly sorrow and broken heart and contrite spirit with our Lord’s infinite forgiveness and compassion, our own natural tendencies, strengths and weaknesses with the gifts of the Spirit, our will with the will of the Father. The Yolk of the Lord is easy. When we are surrounded by our Savior’s love and emulsified in His covenants, we can be filled with a perfect brightness of hope until we are sunny side up. And even if the world tries to poach our peace and joy, or scramble our clarity and resolve, or hard boil our hopes and dreams, or pepper us with so much anger and spice that our hearts are deviled and our nerves are fried, if we have taken upon ourselves the Yolk of the Lord then we can be broken and whipped and beaten but He will be by our side to help us pick up the pieces and put us back together again, better than all the king’s horses and all the king’s men. OK, if I make one more egg pun omelet all the Spirit out of this message. I know that just like an egg yolk, the enabling power of our Savior’s Atoning Grace surrounds us and nurtures us and binds all of the best parts of us together in a perfect emulsion with all of the best gifts that our Heavenly Father has to offer.
