According to scripture, our
Mother Earth has had a very special and mandatory role in our progression. We
usually think of the physical birth she gave humanity (Moses 2:7) but this is not
her only role. She 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 (D&C 88:18-20).
If we study
the process of creation in the Pearl of Great Price, we come away with the
understanding that all the elements involved in the Creation are living
organisms, including the planet we live on. What convinces me of this fact is 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 with
her suffering that he asked God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest”? (v 49,54,58).
When we consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted up and all
nature suffered at the death of its Creator, we can conclude that her soul is
as deep as the river (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19: 12).
I know next
to nothing about physics but I am fascinated with gravity. Without gravity we
would be flying off the surface of this planet and into the unknown but
gravity, like a spiritual umbilical cord keeps us grounded to Mother Earth so
that we cannot be lost. The reason why she wept though over the wickedness of
her children has to do with her foreordination to establish a family system of
eternity. If this fails, the earth could be smitten with a curse and utterly
wasted at the Saviour’s coming (D&C 2:2-3; Malachi 4:5).
Enter Elijah who came to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together so that the earth could answer the end of its creation (see Matthew 17:3; D&C 110:13-16; 128:8-18). Without that power all men and women would be forever without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would otherwise extend into eternity.
Imagine
this big beautiful perfect planet with a soul as tender and real as you and me,
utterly wasted at Christ’s coming. It is
not our carbon foot print that would destroy our Mother Earth but our
wickedness that can destroy her purpose of creation.
Imagine the
waste of Creation, imagine the struggle of Father Adam and Mother Eve as they
paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’ (Moses 5:1). Now imagine the waste of Calvary. Yes, Elijah
had to come to restore the priesthood power which could bind the root to
branches but without our faithfulness the binding is null and void.
Right now
we live in a world that promotes the ‘me and my truth’ mentality. Satan strives
to divert us from a greater picture. We are a link in the chain of something
marvelous and eternal. Each one contributes to the success of that picture. I
know many of us love nature and the beauty of this earth. May we include in our
daily gratitude this ‘needed mother’, this extraordinary planet that seeks to
lift us to higher ground than the one we are currently standing on.
His gift, the beauty of the earth,
To soften the blow of turbulence
So relentlessly near;
With every movement of the trees
And the rustle of its leaves,
He whispers:
“I am here”
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art: Made New by Chris Brazelton)
