Today I’m going to start off from the very beginning. I used to wonder to myself if life really only started when I was born; I have five brothers and sisters, and with me being the second oldest, I had the opportunity to hold my brother and sisters when they were just newborns. I’m sure any parent or person in my same position (that has held a newborn) can’t help but be amazed while holding the baby. It was so hard for me to believe that these babies’ lives hadn’t started before they were born—there was just too much life and light in their eyes! I mean it was just so hard for me to think that people, with their personalities so different one from another—even varying so much between parent and child—just appeared out of thin air. The Book of Mormon actually gives us an answer to this question. By the testament of the Book of Mormon, we learn than we lived before we were born here on earth!
-Helaman 14: 17 But behold, the resurrection of Christ redeemeth mankind, yea, even all mankind, and bringeth them back into the presence of the Lord.
In this scripture, a prophet called Samuel the Lamanite teaches the people about the resurrection; he talks about how it will bring them BACK into the presence of God. In another passage, we hear a similar thing from another prophet, Alma:
-Alma 40: 11 …as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.
Alma is talking about where spirits go between death and the resurrection—of course an interesting topic, but will be addressed later—right now I just want to focus on the last part of the passage. He says they are taken home to the God who gave them life. Here he just reaffirms what Samuel the Lamanite was talking about. He also addresses another thing I want to talk about (this will give some better insight on who we are, but I will also go into even further detail about who we are later on): “…to that God who gave them life.” We know that God is our creator, but we learn in the scriptures that God is our Heavenly Father. This means that God is the literal father of our spirits. This concept is honestly often acknowledged, but never really pondered upon very much I think. The Book of Mormon gives us a better understanding of this principle. By it, we learn simply that, as in our own families, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Although our personalities may be different, the more I grow, the more I play the same role my dad plays—I grow up to be like him. If we will consider the idea that we are really God’s children, I feel the message we get from that can actually be the key to finding meaning to our lives. It will help us understand that question: “why are we here, what is the purpose to life?” We learn that although we once lived with God, we were sent to earth to help further our progression to becoming like our Heavenly Father the prophet Nephi, the first prophet to write in the Book of Mormon, tells us: “Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it.” (1 Nephi 17:36)
Heavenly Father created this world in order for us to fulfill a purpose. He sent us down here to grow and learn and to gain a physical body, and not just a spiritual one—just like God himself has! In the Spirit world, we had grown as much as we could, and were ready for the next step. So, as we read in the scriptures, God created the Earth.
“And then the Lord said: Let us go down. And they went down at the beginning, and … organized and formed the heavens and the earth (Abraham 4:1).”
Let me just take a moment to say that I personally cannot see the beauty of the world and not see God’s hand in it. All of these pictures are real and unedited (yep, even the first one).
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