“And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.” (Mosiah 4:26). There is a type of sculpture called relief sculpture in which an image emerges from but is still attached to the background. The subjects are thus lifted up, or, “in relief”, as the stone or wood of the background is carved away to provide contrast. There are so many of us who are so caught up with merely surviving as we are dealing with real and urgent crises and deprivations, sometimes many of them all at once, that we have very little room in our minds or our hearts to concern ourselves with our immortal souls or our eternal progression or trying to become more like our Savior. We've got lead weights strapped to our feet and our arms are shackled together and we are only some of the time keeping our nose above the water. We are trapped in the background of all of our problems and there is no clear image that can possibly emerge. But when someone ministers to us, when they find us lying half dead on the side of the road and drop everything and bind up our wounds and pour in wine and oil and take us to the inn and pay for us to stay and recover, when they knock on our door and see two inches of water and they don't ask if we need anything but they just roll up their sleeves and grab a mop, when they band together and harvest all of our beets after we've buried most of our family members in the space of a month, they are helping to carve away all of the immediate, surface level concerns so that we are no longer lost in the background. By giving us relief from the things that we are struggling with, they help to lift us up and to cast the image of who we truly are and have the potential to truly become in sharp relief from all of the day to day problems that we were struggling to manage all on our own. As we seek always to administer to the relief of one another, we all help each other to rise up from the background troubles we all face and become stunning images of the God who created us.
