The same right to blessings as if they had been born in...the covenant

I believe that the phrase “the same right to blessings as if they had been born in the covenant” refers to the blessings (long-term support, teaching, love, caring, loyalty, etc.) that a child receives if they have been born into a family in which both the parents are alive long enough to raise their children and, while doing so, lovingly keep and live all of the gospel covenants they had made leading up to and including the commitment they made to each other when they were pronounced husband and wife (ie. the parents were there and they lived the new and everlasting covenant of marriage in the way God designs: in love, kindness, godliness and every other way that is good and helpful to each other and their children).

Early death of a parent will cause pain and suffering for a child, and abandonment, divorce, abuse, enouragement of wickedness, uncaring etc.,etc. do so as well. For me this pronounced blessing is a reiteration of the thorough and complete power of Christ’s Atonement to heal that pain and suffering: heal it so thoroughly that the child ultimately will not only experience the sense of being bouyed up and carried and settled and landed in the arms of God’s love in a way that erases all that pain…as if their suffering had not only not happened, but also to the extent that it is AS IF ALL the nurturing and attendant blessings that were not experienced, and should have happened, did happen.

As such, I find that this blessing is a cause for hope and a source of comfort for children who grow up experiencing the above very difficult things and for those who love and are trying to help them in the face of these various sorrows, injustices and tragedies that befall way too many children and cause them such grief and emotional pain.

For me it is a reminder of the promise of Jesus’ Atonement, his compassion, and his power to ultimately and completely heal all wounds.