You can watch or read Elder Daines’ full talk here.

Elder Daines begins by telling two stories – one about a person with a condition called face-blindness and another about seeing his own mother only as the rule maker rather than a real person.

What do you think was Elder Daines’ purpose in telling these two stories?

I tell you these two stories to make one point: I suspect you know someone (perhaps you are someone) who suffers from a kind of spiritual face blindness.

You may struggle to see God as a loving Father. You may look heavenward and see not the face of love and mercy but a thicket of rules through which you must wend your way. Perhaps you believe God rules in His heavens, speaks through His prophets, and loves your sister, but you secretly wonder whether He loves you. Perhaps you have felt the iron rod in your hand but not yet felt your Savior’s love to which it leads.

“Some Church members accept as true the doctrine, principles, and testimonies proclaimed repeatedly from this pulpit in the Conference Center and in local congregations around the world—and yet may struggle to believe these eternal truths apply specifically in their lives and to their circumstances” (David A. Bednar, “Abide in Me, and I in You; Therefore Walk with Me,” Liahona, May 2023, 125).

Have you were felt like this or know someone close to you who has felt like this?

I suspect you know people like this because for a long time, I was someone like this—I was spiritually face-blind.

I thought my life was about following rules and measuring up to abstract standards. I knew God loved you perfectly but didn’t feel it myself. I’m afraid I thought more about getting into heaven than being with my Heavenly Father.

If you, like me, can sometimes only lip-synch but not “sing the song of redeeming love,”what can we do?

Is your focus on just following rules (keeping the commandments) or on seeing and knowing Jesus? What CAN we do if this describes us?

The answer, as President Russell M. Nelson reminds us, is always Jesus. And that is very good news.

Sir, We Would Like to See Jesus

There’s a short verse in John that I love. It tells of a group of outsiders who make their way to a disciple with an important request. “Sir,” they say, “we would [like to] see Jesus.”⁷

That is what we all want—we want to see Jesus for who He is and to feel His love. This should be the reason for most of what we do in the Church—and certainly of every sacrament meeting. If you’re ever wondering what kind of lesson to teach, what kind of meeting to plan, and whether to just give up on the deacons and play dodgeball, you might take this verse as your guide: will this help people see and love Jesus Christ? If not, maybe try something else.

This suggestion, if taken up, would be truly transformational! For example, how different might be our sacrament meetings be if they were truly focused on helping people see and love Jesus Christ?

When I realized that I was spiritually face-blind, that I saw rules but not the face of the Father’s mercy, I knew it wasn’t the Church’s fault. It wasn’t God’s, and it didn’t mean everything was lost; it’s something we all have to learn. Even the early witnesses to the Resurrection often came face-to-face with the resurrected Lord but did not recognize Him; from the Garden Tomb to the shores of Galilee, His first followers “saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.” They had to learn to recognize Him, and so do we.

How can we learn to recognise him?

Charity

When I realized I was spiritually face-blind, I started to follow Mormon’s counsel to pray “with all the energy of heart” to be filled with the love promised His disciples—my love for Him and His love for me—and to “see him as he is … and have this hope.” I prayed for years to be able to follow the first great commandment to love God and to feel that “first great truth … that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength.”

“The greater definition of ‘the pure love of Christ’ … is not what we as Christians try but largely fail to demonstrate toward others but rather what Christ totally succeeded in demonstrating toward us. True charity has been known only once. It is shown perfectly and purely in Christ’s unfailing, ultimate, and atoning love for us” (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 336).

The Gospels

I also read and reread and reread the four Gospels—this time reading not to extract rules but to see who He is and what He loves. And, in time, I was swept away by the river of love that flowed from Him.

Jesus announced at the outset that He had come “to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind.”

This wasn’t just a to-do list or good PR; it is the shape of His love.

Sister Kirstin M Yee in her October 2020 General Conference talk said:

“To all who are brokenhearted, captive, bruised, and perhaps blinded by hurt or sin, He offers healing, recovery, and deliverance. I testify that that healing and recovery He offers is real. The timing of that healing is individual, and we cannot judge another’s timing. It is important to allow ourselves the necessary time to heal and to be kind to ourselves in the process. The Savior is ever merciful and attentive and stands ready to provide the succor we need.”

Open the Gospels at random; on almost every page we see Him caring for people who suffer—socially, spiritually, and physically. He touches people considered polluted and unclean and feeds the hungry.

What is your favorite story of Jesus? I suspect it shows the Son of God reaching out to embrace or offer hope to someone on the margins—the leper, the hated Samaritan, the accused and scandalous sinner, or the national enemy. That kind of grace is amazing.

Try writing down every time He praises or heals or eats with an outsider, and you will run low on ink before you leave Luke.

What IS your favourite story of Jesus? Does it show Him caring for people who suffer? 

As I saw this, my heart leapt in loving recognition, and I began to feel that He might love me. As President Nelson taught, “The more you learn about the Savior, the easier it will be to trust in His mercy, His infinite love.” And the more you will trust and love your Heavenly Father.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has taught us that Jesus came to show “us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation.”

Paul says God is “the Father of [all] mercies, and the God of all comfort.”

If you see Him differently, please keep trying.

What do we lean about the Saviour from those quotes from President Nelson, Elder Holland and Paul?

Covenants and God’s Embrace

Prophets invite us to seek His face. I take this as a reminder that we worship our Father, not a formula, and that we’re not finished until we see Jesus as the face of our Father’s love and follow Him, not just His rules.

In the footnotes to his talk, Elder Daines writes: “This is an important theme. It’s not just the work of salvation and exaltation but His work of salvation and exaltation (see General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1.2, Gospel Library). I don’t just go to a temple but to the house of the Lord; it’s not the Mormon Church but the Church of Jesus Christ (see Russell M. Nelson, “The Correct Name of the Church,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2018, 87–89). Our leaders point us to Him and even remind us that there “is no amorphous entity called ‘the Atonement’ upon which we may call for succor, healing, forgiveness, or power. Jesus Christ is the source” (Russell M. Nelson, “Drawing the Power of Jesus Christ into Our Lives,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2017, 40).

When prophets and apostles talk of covenants, they aren’t like coaches yelling out from (red velvet) bleachers, telling us to “try harder!” They want us to see our covenants are fundamentally about relationships²⁵ and can be a cure for spiritual face blindness.²⁶ They are not rules to earn His love; He already loves you perfectly. Our challenge is to understand and shape our life to that love.

“Entering into sacred covenants and worthily receiving priesthood ordinances yoke us with and bind us to the Lord Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. This simply means that we trust in the Savior as our Advocate and Mediator and rely on His merits, mercy, and grace during the journey of life. …

“Living and loving covenant commitments creates a connection with the Lord that is deeply personal and spiritually powerful. … Jesus then becomes much more than the central character in scripture stories; His example and teachings influence our every desire, thought, and action” (David A. Bednar, “But We Heeded Them Not,” Liahona, May 2022, 15).

We try to see through our covenants, as if through a window, to the face of the Father’s mercy behind.

Covenants are the shape of God’s embrace.

What does ‘Covenants are the shape of God’s embrace’ mean to you?

The River of God’s Love

Finally, we can learn to see Him by serving Him. “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served?”

A few years ago, I got a calling I didn’t feel up to. I awoke early, nervous—but with a phrase in mind I had not heard before: that to serve in this Church is to stand in the river of God’s love for His children. This Church is a work party of people with picks and shovels trying to help clear the channel for the river of God’s love to reach His children at the end of the row.

Whoever you are, whatever your past, there is room for you in this Church.

In the footnotes to his talk, Elder Daines writes:

“President Nelson has repeatedly called on us to “expand our circle of love to embrace the whole human family” (“Blessed Are the Peacemakers,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2002, 41). In May 2022 he told young adults that “labels can lead to judging and animosity. Any abuse or prejudice toward another because of nationality, race, sexual orientation, gender, educational degrees, culture, or other significant identifiers is offensive to our Maker” (“Choices for Eternity” [worldwide devotional for young adults, May 15, 2022], Gospel Library). And importantly, he said: “I grieve that our Black brothers and sisters the world over are enduring the pains of racism and prejudice. Today I call upon our members everywhere to lead out in abandoning attitudes and actions of prejudice. I plead with you to promote respect for all of God’s children” (“Let God Prevail,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 94).

“Prejudice is not consistent with the revealed word of God. Favor or disfavor with God depends on devotion to Him and His commandments, not on the color of a person’s skin or other attributes.

“… This includes prejudice based on race, ethnicity, nationality, tribe, gender, age, disability, socioeconomic status, religious belief or nonbelief, and sexual orientation” (General Handbook, 38.6.14, Gospel Library).”

Grab a pick and shovel and join the team. Help carry His love to His children, and some of it will splash on you.

Let us seek His loving face, His covenant embrace, and then join arm in arm with His children, and together we will sing “Redeemer of Israel”:

Restore, my dear Savior,

The light of thy face;

Thy soul-cheering comfort impart;

And let the sweet longing

For thy holy place

Bring hope to my desolate heart.

May we seek His loving face and then be vessels of His mercy to His children.

 In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

What key messages will you take away from Elder Daines’ talk?

NB: Passages in italics are direct quotes from Elder Daines’ talk.