FOREORDAINED AND CONSECRATED

 

I have been pondering Moroni’s message to Joseph Smith regarding the earth being wasted if Elijah didn’t come to restore the sealing power (D&C 2:2-3). Malachi goes so far as to say that if it were so, the Lord would smite the earth with a curse at His coming (Malachi 4:5).

The more I thought, the more compassionate I became towards this planet we right now call home. As I reflected, I realized this is not just a planet of hard inanimate components but a living organism with a soul as deep as the river.

Elder M. Russell Ballard confirmed that the habitat of our probation is a living organism: “Astronauts viewing the earth from space have stated how incredibly beautiful it is and how alive it is (“God’s Love for His Children”, Ensign May 1988).

Our Mother Earth which gave us physical birth (Moses 2:7) was foreordained and consecrated to establish on its face a family system patterned after the order of heaven and to become the future celestial abode of exalted sons and daughters of God.

Had Elijah not come to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together, the earth would not have accomplished its foreordained purpose and would not have been able to answer the end of its creation. All men and women would be forever without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would otherwise extend into eternity.

I could not help but re-visit Enoch’s encounter with Mother Earth and what impact it had on him. The grief that took over him made him weep when he heard her call us her children and witnessed her mourn over our wickedness (Moses 7:48). So overcome was Enoch at her suffering that he asked God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest”? (v 49,54,58).

You think the earth has no soul? Consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted up and all nature suffered at the death of its creator (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19: 12).

Imagine this big beautiful perfect planet with a soul as tender and real as you and I, utterly wasted at Christ’s coming…..it simply cannot be.

It is not our carbon foot print that would destroy our Mother Earth but our wickedness that can destroy her purpose of creation. Elijah came to make that purpose fruitful. It is now up to us.

Imagine how Father Adam and Mother Eve would feel to see this earth wasted after they paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’ (Moses 5:1). You think you have it hard? Don’t kid yourself…..you don’t even have to slice your bread!!!

I am constantly amazed at the extent to which our Father has gone to ensure the success of His sons and daughters, to become celestialized eternal families to receive the fulness of joy in His presence forever (Psalm 16:11), when we shall sit down in His kingdom and be as His Beloved Son, sanctified, perfected and glorified amidst the love and happiness such as we have never known before.  

He has risked the loss of many of His children who will never return to Him but the greatest sacrifice of all was when He lifted up His Beloved Son upon the cross of redemption to atone for those of us who will return to live with Him on this Mother Earth forever.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Adam and Eve by Rose Datoc Dall)