The promise made by the Savior is one of unimaginable joy—perfect, untainted, unqualified joy: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”17 But if God shall wipe away all tears, he can only do so by triumphing over the cause of those tears, which is death’s severing of our most intimate family ties and connections. Any joy we savor in the absence of our loved ones is a partial joy, a fractured joy. Heaven apart from those we love is just hell by another name. Joseph said as much: “let
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