Take My Yoke Upon You

I believe there are no coincidences. Here's a good one from my family vacation this summer.

It felt like a bit of a miracle to see this hanging in the wainwright (wagon) shop in the historic Mormon pioneer town of Nauvoo, Illinois: an oxen yoke with the name Grandon etched across it. I didn't see any other yokes with names.

Out of 300 million people in the U.S., there are only 726 with the last name Grandon. It's always been pretty rare. So seeing the yoke in the wagon shop with my name on it was a bit astounding.

I don't know of any Mormon pioneers with that name — except for me. It's just as likely my people forced the Mormons out of Nauvoo at gunpoint in 1846, and church historians picked up the yoke at a neighboring farm a century later.


The day after we left Nauvoo I was in the Boston temple, pondering what I had seen. Does the yoke mean something? Here's the answer that came to me.

For me to see that artifact hanging on the wall, it took several hundred years to get the right people in the right places —

• the farmer named Grandon with oxen;
• the tractor-driving son or grandson who decided not to throw out the yoke when oxen went out of style;
• the picker who found the yoke in an old barn;
• the historian who put it on display;
• my family who encouraged me to meet up with them in Nauvoo;
• etc., etc., etc.

Has God done the same thing by planning and organizing the people, situations and timing that would be part of the experiences of my life? It's overwhelming to consider that he pays that kind of attention to detail, but we're told it's true.

One of the sister missionaries from the Nauvoo visitor's center called me last week, and I told her about my experience finding the yoke in the wainwright's shop. She directed me to the Bible, which duh, I hadn't thought to look in. From the Bible Dictionary —

YOKE. A device put around the necks of animals or men to harness them together. The yoke of Christ is a symbol for discipleship.

Update 9/1/2013:

I'm in awe a few days later as I crack the September Ensign and there's a two-page spread on yokes. With the same title as this blog post. Is somebody trying to tell me something?

Elder Russell M. Nelson —

“You come unto Christ to be yoked with Him and with His power, so that you’re not pulling life’s load alone. You’re pulling life’s load yoked with the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and suddenly your problems, no matter how serious they are, become lighter.”

Matthew 11:29-30 —

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.