June 18, 2015
Dear Riley,
Do you remember that cute board book we used to have about
opposites where you would slide out or up the contrast to the page? Up/down, big/small, in/out, full/empty,
long/short… I’ve been thinking about this concept in our world that is so
simple a child can learn and so complex we can continue discovering our whole
lives through.
There is not power or element in this life that I can think
of that has no opposite. The description
of the creation is a series of dividing into opposites: light/dark, earth/sea,
male/female, two trees that bring life or death. But even if you didn’t accept creation as
laid out in Genesis, we all experience cold and hot, wet and dry, hunger and
satiety, weary and rested, tropical and arid, mountain and plain. There are
still male and female (usually pretty easily determined ;), life and death,
sickness and health all of the time everywhere.
You cannot live without experiencing opposites in many ways each day and
countless ways through the seasons and years we are given on earth.
In 2 Nephi, Lehi explains to his sons that there must be
opposition in all things so that we can be enticed by one or the other. It came to my mind this week as I pondered
this truth that all things do denote that there is a God. We certainly know the power of evil in our
world. We see it portrayed across
nations and in communities. We also know
there is great mercy and generosity in humankind. It doesn’t make sense for there to not be an
orderer, a divider in God. And thereby,
there must be a force of evil in opposition.
I believe we are given all of these contrasts to draw our minds to the
precision creation requires. I believe
it is to draw us to God.
We too are being divided in this life. We are given a sense
in our hearts of the correctness of decisions that bring us closer to God as
well as a warning when we are leaving safe ground. We either let the mostly temporary trials of
life deepen our faith and dependence upon God or we decide He isn’t real.
And there will come a perfect day when we are either
cleansed through our faith and reliance on the atonement of Christ or we find
ourselves unworthy to dwell with that God who gave us a sense of Himself in
countless ways and through many witnesses in this life through a veil of
forgetfulness.
We always have choice and we are always choosing. Some of the hardest realizations come when we
are not honestly squaring with ourselves about those choices.
It’s something to think about, isn’t it?
I love you,
Mom
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