Carried on Their Shoulders: Kings Will Gather His Children In 1945 a researcher named René Spitz compared babies in two nurseries. In one, the babies were fed, cleaned and medically cared for, but almost never held. In the other, their mothers carried them. You can guess which babies thrived. Long before Spitz, Isaiah promised scattered Israel that kings and queens would carry God's children home on their own shoulders, and Nephi copied that promise into his record and then said plainly who those kings would be. This episode follows the promise from ancient Israel to a Bucharest orphanage to the waters of baptism, and finds that it was written about us. Before you listen — a few caveats for every Coming Closer episode: This is not doctrine and I'm not an authoritative source for truth. But I believe asking questions is the way to come closer to Him. "Ask, and it shall be given unto you." God expects us to wonder, be amazed, and read between the lines.Leave space for the truth. This is speculation — interesting speculation, I think — but someday the whole truth will be known. Leave room in your mind and heart for it when it is revealed.I hope you'll have some Wow moments as we talk. When that happens, pause. Stop and think about why it touched your heart — maybe jot down a few ideas to pursue. The truth is absolute, but our journey to it is unique, custom made just for us, and there are moments when we simply need to stop and be amazed.What we cover: Israel's cry that God had forgotten her, and His answer, "I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands" (1 Nephi 21:14–16); the promise that "kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers" (1 Nephi 21:22–23), carrying God's children home the way the Good Shepherd carries His lost sheep (Luke 15:5); Nephi naming the kings, a mighty nation among the Gentiles (1 Nephi 22:6–7); what made an ancient king a king, and why the phone in your pocket gives you more reach than Solomon had; Spitz's two nurseries and the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, and why being carried is biology, not a metaphor; Dave Thomas and Steve Jobs, two adopted sons who never doubted whose they were; King Benjamin's promise that covenant makes us "the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters" (Mosiah 5:7), and Paul's "Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15); and the kings who "lick up the dust," Isaiah's picture of power bent low in willing service. The closing thought: we are the kings Isaiah envisioned. We have been given the capacity to carry the children of Israel back to their covenant heritage, back to their covenant family. Not someday, when we're more ready, or richer, or more spiritual. Right now, with exactly what's already in our hands. Scriptures: 1 Nephi 21:14–16, 22–23; Luke 24:39; 3 Nephi 11:14–15; Luke 15:5; 1 Nephi 22:6–7; Mosiah 5:7; Galatians 3:27, 29; Romans 8:15. Sources: René A. Spitz, "Hospitalism," The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (1945), via Katharina Rowold, Social History of Medicine (2019); Kathryn L. Humphreys et al., "Foster care leads to sustained cognitive gains following severe early deprivation," PNAS (2022); Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, "Our History and Dave's Story"; Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (Simon & Schuster, 2011).
