“Yea, even so he shall be led, crucified, and slain, the flesh becoming subject even unto death, the will of the Son being swallowed up in the will of the Father.” (Mosiah 15:7). Mitochondria are organelles inside our cells that generate energy and are popularly known as the “powerhouses of the cell.” It is believed that mitochondria were not originally a part of cells, but that at some point in the past, a eukaryotic cell swallowed up a prokaryotic cell and the two became fused together forever after. The mitochondria offer up a powerful energy source for the host cells, and the hosts offer the absorbed mitochondria protection from outside sources. This is a process called endosymbiosis. As a part of this process, the absorbed mitochondria do strip themselves of much of their original genetic material but do still retain a core of DNA that is encoded separately from the majority of the DNA located in the cell's nucleus. At the end of the day, much of the genes that the mitochondria slough off are either no longer necessary from the shelter and protection of their host cell, or else the host has similar genes that perform the same kind of functions, often better than the original genes could have managed. What does all of this microbiology talk have to do with the verse I quoted at the beginning? Like Jesus, each of us must reach a level of humility and trust with God that our will is swallowed up in the will of the Father. Being swallowed up seems bad and destructive and final. But we are not surrendering ourselves to be swallowed up in the same way that a snake swallows up its prey. It is more like we are the mitochondria being absorbed by the eukaryotic cell. We will still exist after we have been swallowed up. In fact, being swallowed up means that we will be sheltered and safe from outside forces that really are trying to destroy us. And yes, we will have to strip away certain parts of ourselves as we fuse ourselves endosymbiotically with our Heavenly Father, but the parts that we are discarding are either no longer necessary given our now safe and privileged position, or are else being handled far more effectively by the Lord in His own way. If we will allow ourselves to be swallowed up by the Lord, we will become a part of Him and accomplish together with Him things that we would never have dreamed possible if we had refused to surrender ourselves. I know that being Swallowed up in the will of the Father is not the death of our individuality and a farewell to our freedom but rather a crucial step to everlasting life and liberty.
