Last night, while watching On Sacred Ground (Part IV) by Truman G. Madsen, I was struck by a Jewish saying and the context in which it was presented. Paraphrased, it goes like this:
If you save an individual, you save a race; if you destroy an individual you destroy a race.
Madsen explains that when Abraham was commanded to sacrifice Isaac he knew of the plan of salvation, the way families are linked forever, and that in sacrificing his son, he would not only be ending his son’s life on this earth, but that he’d be breaking the family chain forever, for to sacrifice his son would be an act of murder, which would make him unworthy of the Celestial Kingdom. And yet his faith was so strong he was willing to do it, for he knew that through obedience he is promised an eternal family. Through faith then, he assumed that somehow Isaac will be made whole again, and his family will continue.
What struck me so strongly is the worth of the individual--not only because of himself or herself--but how essential the he or she is to the integrity of the whole. I had to ask myself, do I treat everyone I come in contact with, with the respect they deserve, knowing generations are counting on them to be the best person they can be? Am I there to help others in the way others have helped me?
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