obey I
People often describe being out in nature as a purifying experience. Sure, there is a stillness there that is unique to being separated from the city, but being with our fellow living things is so much more to me. There is a scripture in Moses 3 that says the following:
“For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth.”
He goes on to say that He created life before life was present on earth. It’s easier, perhaps, to understand that we humans have spirits and that those spirits were created by God before our bodies were created on earth than it is to understand that all life had in fact been created beforehand also. To think of the trees that blanket the mountains as things created spiritually first makes them more special to me.
I am reading a really great book on faith and science by an LDS author. In the book he talks about laws that govern the earth and space. Things seem to follow “rules” naturally. This is how we find patterns and make discoveries. The earth is ruled by natural law, and there is order. Plants seem to be living things that are firmly obedient in keeping the order that they were given. They have no agency, really. They are pure. They are obedient to God, to the order He has given them. I think this is the reason I am so fascinated by the outdoors. I am surrounded by pure, obedient life. Truly, it is a spiritual experience and a humbling one.
“And (God) organized the earth to bring forth grass from its own seed, and the herb to bring forth herb from its own seed, yielding seed after his kind; and the earth to bring forth the tree from its own seed, yielding fruit, whose seed could only bring forth the same in itself, after his kind; and (God) saw that (He) was obeyed.”
That is life, right? Trying every single day to be obedient to God and failing in so many ways yet the trees and grass right outside our doors are doing a really great job. Nature reminds me to be obedient. It tells a story of a God who is so full of love and meaning that He even created the trees spiritually first and in their earthly bodies they are living souls.