No Coincidences

Tag: earth

  • The Ladder of the Atonement

    The Ladder of the Atonement

    When we came to earth and committed our first sin, knowing right and wrong, we fell. Coming to Earth was an inevitable fall. Why then did we shout for joy when the plan was laid forth and we were told we would be coming to Earth? Coming to Earth to fall below our current status, to fall into a pit, in a way. So why were we excited to enter this pit?

    Well, for a couple reasons. One reason would be that we would receive a body. Another reason was we knew we could become like our Father, who we loved and admired. All it required was this scary step.

    I think this might be why so many didn’t come to earth. We are told that one third of our brothers and sisters in heaven didn’t make the jump. They were content where they were at. Why fall and risk not getting back to the point they were already at? I think we see this mindset with a lot of people on earth now. Why push yourself? Why come out of your comfort zone? Why do difficult things? Why do anything for anyone else? What’s the point? The point is growth and progression. If we’re not growing we’re not doing anything.

    So, we fell into this pit called earth. And how were we supposed to get out? We would be stuck in a pit. We would need something completely out of our power and ability to save us. A ladder would need to be extended to us. And from this ladder we could ascend not only out of the pit and back to our original standing before we came to earth. We could ascend all the way to be like our Father, the one we admired and desperately wanted to be like.

    The Atonement is that ladder. From the pit, there was nothing we could do to attain this ladder. It was given to us by the grace of Jesus Christ alone. He brought the ladder, He did the hard work (bleeding from every pore, broken body) of carrying that ladder to us. Then He extended the ladder down.

    It was then up to us to decide if we wanted to use the ladder. God won’t ever force us to do anything. We would have to choose to use the ladder. We would have to choose to take step by step, rung by rung to come up to the level of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Again, without the ladder, we could do nothing. With the ladder, we could be like Him.

    What is the ladder? The ladder is faith in Jesus Christ and His Atoning sacrifice for our sins, for our fallen state. Every time we repent and try to be better, we are taking a step up the ladder Jesus Christ has provided us. Every step up the ladder is service and love. Every step up the ladder is trying to be like Jesus Christ, by using the ladder to get closer to Him.

  • Pondering on Death, Eternity, Growth, and Mortality

    Pondering on Death, Eternity, Growth, and Mortality

    Emma Smith, the wife of the prophet, was once given a promise that is worth pondering.

    Emma had a 14-month-old child die.

    As a father of three, the thought is unimaginable. Reading through the list of Smith children that died in infanthood is heartbreaking.

    According to Alexander Smith, Emma’s son who made it to adulthood, shortly before her death in 1879 she had a vision where Joseph Smith visited her and promised her she would raise all her children who had not lived to adulthood after her mortality ended.

    What are the implications of this?

    I believe what can be gleaned from this is powerful, comforting, and gives a look into the truly magnificent love and power of a Father in Heaven. I believe the truths restored by Joseph Smith to be awe-inspiring. I believe the truths revealed by Joseph Smith should be awe-inspiring if he truly was a prophet of God. I believe that to be truth.

    I’ve read near-death experiences that describe young children playing in heaven. I still wonder about, and don’t comprehend, age, mortality, “childhood and adulthood”, maturity, time, and the importance of our bodies.

    Those categories: age, mortality, childhood and adulthood, maturity, time, and our bodies seem like a wide-ranging and somewhat unrelated group of topics.

    But what was shared with Emma Smith makes those topics intertwined.

    What is age? In mortality, I am 30 years older than my children. But in the eternities their spirits are eternal, they never had a beginning. Who I am to say that I am any more “mature” than my two sweet daughters? My two young girls teach me and inspire me daily. I believe I came to earth before them to guide them, lead them, watch over them – a great and marvelous calling and responsibility – but they’re also here to guide, lead, and watch over me. It’s the great circular of life (not to be confused with, though very similar to, the Circle of Life in the Lion King).

    In this sense, what is childhood and adulthood?

    It is one eternal round.

    But that experience – of me raising my children and the humility that brings – and my children being raised – and the humility that takes – clearly has significance and importance to our eternal progression. This explains why Emma was given this promise that she would one day raise the children she lost. She missed that opportunity, but in God’s Plan, nothing is truly missed. It’s all one eternal round. It all comes back. This should be a great comfort to anyone who has lost any loved ones, to anyone who’s felt they missed any mortal opportunity – to raise children, get married, or have any mortal experience – this should be a great comfort to all.

    Another significant message to take from this vision given to Emma is the importance of the family unit. Just because Emma’s children died as infants didn’t mean they weren’t her children. They would always be her children. She would always be their mother. The family unit is important. The family unit is eternal.

    I’ve touched on age, mortality, childhood and adulthood, maturity, and time – 5 of the 6 seemingly random topics. What of our bodies?

    Our bodies have eternal significance and their growth has eternal significance. We can not be like our Father in Heaven until we are resurrected and have bodies like His. I’ve been pondering on this a lot lately. The elements are eternal. Element can not be destroyed. When God created Adam and Eve’s bodies from the dust of the earth, He was taking eternal element and making a tabernacle for them. Our eternal spirits are housed in eternal element. There is something extraordinary and significant about our bodies. We cannot be properly resurrected beings, we cannot be like our Heavenly Father, without attaining our bodies.

    After our resurrection we will attain our bodies for the rest of eternity and therefore be more like our Father.

    Finally, the biggest thing to take away from Emma’s experience is how ignorant we are of the complete workings of God. We can rest assured that a perfect and all-loving Father in heaven will make ALL things right. Every last item that is a concern to us – death, raising children, marriage, relationships, family – all of it will be understood and made right in a perfect way.

    I have no doubt that my Heavenly Father, and your Heavenly Father, loves all of us in such a deep and incomprehensible way. I have faith in His love and His character. I have faith in His Plan. I know all our concerns are but the concerns of a child wanting a chocolate bar at a store. The child can’t see the grand scheme and can’t see how the world can be right while leaving the store without a chocolate bar. One day our eyes will be opened and we will see that the chocolate bar wasn’t as important as we thought, for our Father had created a plan to give us all the chocolate our heart could desire.

    If we follow Him and trust Him, it all will be made right.

  • Purpose and What Did You Eat Last Week

    Purpose and What Did You Eat Last Week

    I recently did a meditation that I couldn’t get myself into, I disagreed so much with the premise. I can usually go with the flow with any guided meditation, at least the ones I’ve done. Often the guided meditations lead to spiritual thoughts. This meditation led to a spiritual thought, but not in the normal way.

    The voice leading the meditation stated, basically, that we are on this big rock floating through space. None of us know why we’re here or what the true purpose of all this is. The meditation continued advising to set that aside for a moment and focus on your breathing, etc.

    I stopped right there. In my mind I thought, but I do know why I’m here, I do know the purpose of all this. I couldn’t get behind the premise. It’s a common theme of my writing. Where we come from, why we’re here, where we’re going. It hit me that 99% of people listening to that meditation probably don’t bat an eye at that statement. Most people probably gloss right over it like, “Yeah, I don’t know what the meaning of all this is.” That makes me sad.

    I just started a new book that talks about the temporal nature of this life and how silly it is to one, not believe in the things we can’t see, and two, put so much stock into the things we can see, even though they’re so temporary.

    The book asked what I ate 2 weeks ago. I had no idea. It made an interesting point. Food and water are the most critical thing to our survival. We can’t survive without them. Yet, what did you eat 2 weeks ago? You don’t even remember. What about the car that you love then 8 years later is a clunker. Or the house you cherish but inevitably becomes dirty, beat up, and cluttered with other stuff that is inconsequential. The book talked about how much stock we put into these things.

    How many of us consider why we’re here or where we’re going? How many in the world live in complete ignorance, not wanting to consider these great questions? It amazes me.

    We can’t see or describe heartache, fear, doubt, love, the wind, and yet they exist. Faith exists. Our soul exists. Eternity exists. God exists. These are the things that matter. I wish our society could spend a little less time with a Netflix special they won’t remember a year from now and consider more the purpose of this life. 

    The purpose of this life is God’s plan to make us stronger, better, and more like Him. We knew God before we came here. We will remember Him when we leave here. This life is so important. Not for food, or water, or cars, or homes, or Netflix, but for the faith we build, the experiences we go through, and the families and relationships we cultivate. I wish this is something we could all remember more.

  • Gravity of God

    Gravity of God

    The push and pull of all things.

    Here’s another one of those thought experiments I’ve talked about before. Let’s see where this goes. Work with me.

    Earth’s gravity pulls us down, we push back on Earth, but Earth doesn’t feel us because we’re so small and insignificant.

    God is the gravity of our universe. The magnitude of His pull is so great that He is the force that keeps us in balance, connected to His gravity, two feet stable on the ground.

    My mind is having trouble wrapping itself fully around the concept I’m trying to describe, so bear with me.

    Visions of Glory talks about the impact of every single moment in our lives. When we do something, it ripples all around us. No action we ever take does not impact something or someone in some way. Everything. The smallest moments and the largest decisions. They all ripple through time and have such an impact.

    I believe this to be true.

    I’ve long tried to understand how God’s omniscience and our free will coexist. I know (or hope) this is something I’ll learn when I die. But for now, my mortal mind is working through this understanding. It’s been proposed that God is a great mathematician who quantifies the likelihood of every person in the world’s choices and comes to an approximation of what will happen in the future. That seems too simple…and seems to have some holes in it. Again, to me, in my simple mind.

    What I’m thinking with gravity and pull is this –

    God is the pull on all of us. He keeps us in balance, as already stated.

    We have pull on other things around us as well. As I mentioned, our choices have impacts on others. Now, it’s not our gravity, like God’s, that impacts others. We’re not celestial beings like God – yet.  But our choices, our actions, our thoughts do impact and change our surroundings and those around us.

    So God’s gravity pulls all of us. We pull others with our actions.

    I wonder, and I think I’m starting to believe, that there is a great cosmic physics happening. God is the center, the everything, the force that keeps us in motion. We make choices that impact others. In a way, we’re being trained to be like God, to have an impact, to have a force.

    Since God is the center, the everything, He sees our actions and how they will ripple, since they all report back to Him. He is our gravity. So as we ripple, He is the center, and He sees the all. Since He is our force, and we move around Him, He can sense it all, past, present, and future.

    Now, as I write this, I again am struck by the simplicity of my mind and how short I am falling in describing what I’m trying to describe. It’s like describing the color blue. I can feel what I’m trying to say, but I just can’t put it into words.

    Anyways, there’s the Physics lesson for the day. I know it’s a bit rambling and I’m not positive it makes sense. Thanks for reading.

  • Discussion Before I Came to Earth

    Discussion Before I Came to Earth

    “Now, you’re going to get a lot of attention. A LOT. You will be the center of their world for years. This will give you a huge advantage in life. That early love will carry you for your entire mortal experience.”

    My upcoming birth and place in life were being discussed.

    “But, there is a downside. Your parents are young, inexperienced. They can barely take care of themselves. Now they’ll have to take care of you. They will make mistakes. Every mistake they make will be made up for by the outpouring of love you receive, but there will still be mistakes. You will have to grow up as they learn to take care of a child.

    “Also, being the first-born will be a huge responsibility. If things go according to plan, and they always do, you will be the first of many children. Your younger siblings will be as much your responsibility in life as your parents. You will have to answer to how you treated them, how you watched over them, how you protected them, how you supported them. It will start at a young age, but it will be for your entire mortal life. You will have to watch over them.”

    I loved each of them so much already. Of course, I would do that.

    “Being the oldest will provide many unique opportunities. Sometimes you will be a bully. This will be to teach you something later in life and to teach your siblings. Over time your relationship with them will grow and develop. You all will mature mortally and spiritually.

    “It won’t be easy. But being the first-born child will set you up to achieve your highest potential. It’s what He has in store for you. It will help you become who you can become.”

    This is how I imagine the conversation in heaven was before I came here. It would continue,

    “You will have a bumpy path. You’ve always had to learn things through trial and error. You will taste much of the bitter to realize how sweet obedience is.

    “Eventually we believe you will come back. Of course, that will be up to you. But Father doesn’t misread these things. When you come back you will find a companion from the devoted women of the kingdom. You know her already.

    “When the time is right, we will send you His choicest spirit. She will enter in much the same position you entered this world. Your wife and you will have much to learn, and she will teach you. You will be sent a strong, powerful, spiritual, kind, gentle, intelligent spirit to be a cornerstone of your family. She will be followed by another choice spirit, one who even now can’t wait for her experience to start. She will bring a spark and a light to your family. Your family will be stronger for the two pillars sent to expand it. You will be greatly blessed by your daughters.”

      Doesn’t this bring so much meaning to life? The truth of premortal existence speaks to my soul. I know it to be a fact. It is too sweet for my spirit to deny. I know its truth. I knew where I was coming, I knew who I was joining, I knew my wife and daughters before I came here. I was guided and trained for my time here on earth. I was sent for a purpose. I believe I’m still learning that purpose. Every mortal experience I’ve had has led me to the purposes I’m finding in life.

      “Your purpose will be to come to Him. Because you will taste so much bitter, you will be able to help others find Him. This will be your purpose.”

      I’m grateful for this truth of premortality. I know it’s true. I feel it. I know there’s a reason I’m here. I’m grateful for that.

      https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/premortality?lang=eng