Jesus Blesses The Nephite Children

I am going to use visualization and hope that you can see in your mind the great and wondrous events found in the Book of Mormon in the 3rd book of Nephi in the 17th chapter in verses 11 thru 25.

First I will set up the scene based on these verses and others. There were about 2,500 people - men, women, and children (3 Nephi 17:25)  gathered around the temple in Bountiful (3 Nephi 11:1) when our resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, descended from heaven and instructed them and organized His church among them (3 Nephi 11 -16). I imagine it is in the late afternoon or early evening and Jesus tells them to go to their homes to prepare their minds for what he will teach them tomorrow when He comes again. The people wanted Him to stay longer and so he does and He heals their sick.

Now he turns his attention to their children.

Jesus commanded that their little children be brought. So they brought their little children and set them down upon the ground round about him, and Jesus stood in the midst; and the multitude gave way till they had all been brought unto him. Infants were placed at his feet, looking up at him. Toddlers set down all around him and they sat quietly, reverently, and looked upon Jesus, older siblings sat still too. None spoke, none cried. So powerful must have been the spirit to create such a scene. The parents withdrew. Hundreds of children gathered round Jesus, some likely had just been healed by him.

All the adults knelt, making a second circle around Jesus. Jesus is at the center, encircled by the children, who are encircled by their kneeling parents. Jesus knelt. He prayed unto the Father.

The testimony the people gave of this prayer is as follows:

"16 ... The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;
17 And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father."

After this pray, Jesus arose. The joy the multitude felt overcame them to the point they were all laying on the ground. Jesus bade them arise and they did. Jesus wept for joy.

Then Jesus took their little children, one by one, and blessed them, and prayed for them. I imagine Jesus smiling as he held each infant in his arms and blessed each one. Likewise as he held each toddler, and each little child. So important are the children that he spent individual time with each one. There must have been more than one hundred.

And with joy, Jesus wept again. Tears streaming down his checks and around his smile.

Then he said, "Behold your little ones."

The heavens opened above them and hundreds of angels descended as it were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister unto them.

There are a few ways to visualize this scene, one that I came upon, is that there is one ring of fire encircling all the children with the angels on the inside of that ring and Jesus in the center. The angels ministered unto them by lifting the infants into their arms, as well as the toddlers. They may have given hugs to the toddlers and little children, taken their hands, either walking beside the children hand in hand while teaching them the gospel and/or they could have set them in their laps to teach them or sat facing them moving their hands and arms as they taught them important truths. Resurrected beings (having only received their perfect bodies hours or minutes before arriving) with a white light around them brighter than the noon day sun and a circle of orange fire around this group between them and their parents but a fire that did not block what was happening from view.

And I wonder if some of these were Lehi, Nephi, Sam, Jacob, Joseph, Abinadi, Captain Moroni, both Alma's, Sariah, and others of the Nephites from times past. Wouldn't that have been something for them to be the angels that ministered unto the Nephite children.

I testify that Jesus did truly visit the Nephites after his Resurrection and he and angels ministered unto the Nephites little children. Not every word in this post is true as some of it is what I envisioned this event to be, however, every word of this event as found in 3 Nephi 17:11-25 is true and much of those words are quoted herein. May they help you to understand this scriptural event better.