“Having Gone the Way of All the Earth”
Alma 1:1
How final is death. That’s not a question. That’s a statement.
As inhabitants of this earth, as partakers of this fall from a celestial to a telestial degree of life, energy, and glory (all of which are synonymous terms), we have committed ourselves to the reality that we too must go “the way of all the earth.”
This earth is in a state of ebbing and flowing on a very short time cycle. The one eternal round of all creation is reduced, miniaturized into its spinning seasons. So much in this world is a microcosmic model of greater applications of the same principles in eternity.
President Hinckley, in the April, 1999, General Conference, said this of death:
“I . . . reflected on the lives of those who were once buoyant and happy, who were creative and distinguished, who gave much to the world in which they lived. They have all passed into the oblivion of the grave. All who have lived upon the earth before us are now gone. They have stepped over the threshold of silent death. None has escaped.” (Ensign, May, 1999, p. 70)
The way of eternity is that there are comings and goings, going out to fulfill a certain mission according to our Heavenly Father’s will for each of us–and then coming back to report. There are times of work and times of rest.
This is the time, in mortality, to prepare to meet God (again). And to meet Him at a higher and more mature and prepared state of being if we will allow this mortality to humble us so that we may desire to “do good continually.” In other words, so that we can become as much like Him as we have been able to mature spiritually while in this life.
This is the “good warfare” spoken of in the next phrase of Alma 1:1.
Today’s prayer: Father God, grant me the blessing of remembering that, when I left Thee and All my beloved Family and Home, that I, just like Peter, James and John, just like my Savior Jesus Christ, was sent on a mission to observe and serve, to learn and to teach. Grant me to remember that I too will have the opportunity to return and report to my Savior and to Thee what I observed, what I learned and whether I shared with others what I learned. I pray I may have all the experiences I need while here to grow as much like Thee and our precious Mother as possible. Ebbing and flowing, coming and going, it is all good–of God and Godliness.
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