“O that ye would awake; awake from a deep sleep, yea, even from the sleep of hell, and shake off the awful chains by which ye are bound, which are the chains which bind the children of men, that they are carried away captive down to the eternal gulf of misery and woe. Awake! and arise from the dust, and hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs ye must soon lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveler can return; a few more days and I go the way of all the earth. But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.” (2 Nephi 1:13-15). DNA is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that wrap around each other to form a double helix. At the most basic cellular level, we are bound by genetic chains. Our DNA chains are very powerful. From our physical characteristics to our personalities to the way that we form memories or develop preferences, all of this is strongly determined and shaped by our genetics. Not everything about who we are or the choices we make is biologically determined, but if we strive to go against our genetic predispositions, we may find that those DNA chains bind and restrict us a lot more than we might like to believe. The good news is that it is possible to shake off these chains. We don't have to acknowledge that we're just built this particular way and accept that change is impossible because we are biologically locked into this one particular pattern. Going against our DNA is hard. These chains are literally in every cell in our body. But just as Christ can rewrite our pasts and forgive us of our sins, He can rewrite our DNA and give us a future we never dreamed was possible as He breaks the chains and wraps us eternally in the arms of His love.
