I Have Value
Recently I have
been thinking of why God would care enough to know me or hear and answer my
prayers. There are so many more important things going on in the world that he
has to deal with, does he really care about me? Moses when he was shown the
creation of this earth said: “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing..”
(Moses 1:10) William Lund spoke to the students at BYU about the number of
galaxies that the Hubble telescope has captured:
“The Pinwheel Galaxy,
which is 25 million light years from us, contains 100 billion stars, smaller
than the 300 billion of our own galaxy. Pointing Hubble Telescope to what
seemed to be a minuscule vacant region of the sky it captured 5,500 galaxies
that are about 3.2 billion light years from us. We imagine that these images
are similar to what we can see from any other view of the universe, the number
of galaxies and the number of stars in those galaxies. I feel very small. How is it that a planet as small as ours
orbiting a single star orbiting among billions of galaxies that seem endless
can attract the attention of the creator?”
In the vision
Moses saw of the creation the Lord said to him:
And worlds without
number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and
by the Son I created them, which is mine Only
Begotten.
And as one
earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and
there is no end to my works, neither to my words.
For behold, this is
my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of
man.
(Moses 1:33, 38-39)
Back to Bro.
Lund’s question: “How is it that a planet as small as ours orbiting a single
star orbiting among billions of galaxies that seem endless can attract the
attention of the creator?” We lean in the last verse of the scripture above
that our Heavenly Father’s work is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal
life. The world we live on and the entire universe was created for us. President Uchtdorf speaking in a General
Conference address talked about how much we matter to our creator:
“But even
though man is nothing, it fills me with wonder and awe to think that “the worth
of souls is great in the sight of God.”
“And while
we may look at the vast expanse of the universe and say, “What is man in
comparison to the glory of creation?” God Himself said we are the reason He
created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent
universe—is to save and exalt mankind.8 In
other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of
infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like
you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our
potential as His sons and daughters.
“This is a paradox of man:
compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against
the backdrop of infinite creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark
of eternal fire burning within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise
of exaltation—worlds without end—within our grasp. And it is God’s great desire
to help us reach it.” (“You Matter to Him”, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, General
Conference, October 2011)
Former President
of the Logan Utah Married Student 1st Stake, Ray Reutzel, shared his
thoughts about how God is involved in the intimate details of our lives:
“How is it that the God of Heaven who is
without sin has set his heart on something as menial as us. He has graven our
image on the palm of his hand and weeps for us. What does that tell us of our
God? Does he live in a realm that is untouched and unblemished to our suffering
and pain? Is his willingness to weep for us evidence of his love and the nature
of being a God?
He is involved in the intimate details of our
lives and he makes himself vulnerable to those things that hurt us and make
themselves vulnerable to pain because they love us.” (President D. Ray Reutzel
to Logan Utah Married 1st Stake Council, November 28, 2012)
I have had many
experiences that have taught me that my Heavenly Father knows me and is there
to help me when needed. I shared one
example at the beginning of this blog on July 7th, 2013. It was
titled “TheTender Mercies of the Lord”. I related how I was struck with pancreatitis
and was very ill for some time. I was given a blessing by my bishop at the time
and was told that it was not my time to depart this life that the Lord had
other things for me to do. That bishop
is now the stake president of the student stake that I serve in and he is the
one that called me to be the bishop. I asked him when he extended the call to
me if he knew when he gave me that blessing 10 years ago that serving as a
bishop to the students of Utah State University was what the Lord had in mind.
He said: “Not only did I not know that, but that I would be the person to call
you to be a bishop”. I know that call
came from God and that he extended my life to be able to serve at this time.
There have been many other reasons that I was not taken at the time of my
illness, but serving as a bishop has been a great blessing to my family and me.
In another one
of our stake council meetings, President Reutzel spoke about the how the
Savior’s Atonement though infinite and eternal is also a personal atonement. He
taught that somehow the Savior was able to step out of time and space and have
each one of us personally come to him and allow him to take all of our sins
from us and free us from those sins. What a wonderful concept; the Savior was
able to make the atonement a personal thing for each one of us and we are all
able to be clean before our Heavenly Father because of the love that our Savior
has for each one of us.
Bro. Lund shared
with the BYU students that one the members of his ward speaking in sacrament
meeting said that we all know that we call 911 when we need help in an
emergency. She said that we should remember the number 991 as it relates to
service. The Savior spoke of leaving the 99 to go rescue the one lost. In those
parables, the Savior has extended the challenge to us to leave the 99 and go in
search of those who are lost.
Sometimes as we
wander in the chaos and storms that rage around us, we get lost and think we
have little or no value. Even though Moses said that “man was nothing” he also
learned that to God we mean everything. The Apostle John wrote:
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
God loves me
(and you) enough to send his only begotten Son so that I (and you) could have
everlasting life. That is the greatest of all the gift of God and that is worth
giving up all my sins for.
Your comments
and questions are welcome.
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