Jesus Christ's Intimate Atonement, my son's personal experience

My ten year-old son gets a migraine headache about once a week. He’s had them since he was about six-years old, but I didn’t know he was having a migraine. He would come home from school, usually on a Wednesday, throw up and sleep for a couple of hours in a dark room. When he first started having them, he described them as sugar-head. Then later that he was overheated. And more recently that there was a flash of light. I’ve had a migraine only once so far. It was shortly after my son described the flash of light. I saw a fuzzy glow to the side, a flash of pain, and then pain so intense, I had to lie down in a dark room, sleep, and wait for it to pass. I think I experienced that one time so I could relate in a small way to my son.

We’ve tried food and activity journals, eliminating foods, and a great doctor who helped him with parasites. He has periods with less headaches and some with more. I think it’s a combination of stress, fatigue, poor eating, possible food sensitivities, and how his body works. Now that he is older, he can sometimes catch them before they get bad. He can better explain to me how they feel. But I still don’t know exactly how he feels, and I can’t take the pain away.

The Sunday before Easter, my son and I pulled into the garage after church. We were the only ones in the car. With one hand on the door, ready to leave, he said, “Mom, Jesus knows what my headaches feel like. And there are billions of people in the world. And he knows what each of them feel. That’s a lot of people.”

That is a lot of people. A lot of pain, sorrow, sin, sickness. Alma, a prophet in The Book of Mormon, prophesied of what Jesus would do for us. He said, “the Son of God…shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:10-12).

My son’s insight has made me think about the number of people in the world who Jesus Christ loves and atoned for. I can’t comprehend the numbers. Then about all the people who have ever lived and who will live. I don’t know how Christ accomplished His atonement. Somehow he suffered for each person. He knows each of our pains personally so he can succor us. That pain is incomprehensible. Jesus Christ told the prophet Joseph Smith, “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink--” (Doctrine & Covenants 19:18).

What can I do to cause my Savior less pain, to thank Him for the sacrifice of His life for me, to access the power of His Atonement? Jesus Christ said, “Wherefore, I command you again to repent, lest I humble you with my almighty power; and that you confess your sins…Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my Spirit, and you shall have peace in me” (Doctrine & Covenants 19:20, 23). I need to repent. I need to learn of Christ, through study and through personal prayer, and I need to keep His commandments. Then He promises not only the gifts we will receive after we die, immortality and eternal life, but also peace in this life.

Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. For my son. For me. And for you.
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https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2017-02-1000-the-prince-of-peace-find-lasting-peace-through-jesus-christ?lang=eng