Scrolls!
Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m just a bit religious. My religion plays a role in everything I do. My religion doesn’t tell me what to do or think or say, I’ve found that the religion I belong to comes closest to how I actually think. That’s why I’m there. With that said, let’s talk about today’s topic. This is not taken from any doctrine, but are my thoughts, so any similarities with any other religious beliefs are purely coincidental, and maybe they got it from me! 😊 Have you ever sat there and wondered how it is that God can know all his children, or if he does? Have you ever sat and wondered how he could care for you individually and know all your needs, hopes and dreams? Have you given yourself a headache thinking about all the times maybe you prayed for something or someone only to have that prayer not answered (at least in the way you had wished it would)? I’ve thought about these things… a lot, and it was actually one of the driving forces that brought me to where I am today and the faith that I do have. For starters, let me tell you my findings, and then I’ll share with you the reasons behind them. God does indeed know us each individually. God does indeed watch every second of our life and follows our lives closer than we follow our favorite Youtuber, or Facebook friend. God has a direct interest in each of our lives and watches with a great desire to bless and assist us on our road during our mortal adventures. Why would an all-powerful, all-knowing God take any interest in our lives? And how can he, with there being billions of people alive on the earth, keep tabs on each and every one of us? I used to really wonder that, and it bugged me because I looked at the prospect of keeping track of so many as an impossible task. So, in my mind, I figured God just played favorites and the “lucky” ones here on earth got the blessings and maybe their test was to share with the rest and take care of them? I couldn’t figure it out. As I’ve grown older, and somewhat wiser, grayer, heavier… ok, I’ll stop there… As I’ve grown, and really gave this some intense thought and prayer, I think I hit on an answer that justifies the Almighty in my mind. In the scriptures, many times the reference to a scroll is made when talking of the earth. This led me down a path of understanding that I didn’t anticipate. With the concept of a scroll, you can see it all from left to right, top to bottom, and everything in between. God has the earth laid out like a scroll (I believe he used that analogy because the actual way he views the earth, us, and everything in it is probably beyond our understanding) and is able to see any part of the scroll at any time at any angle. This started me thinking, “Ok, but how does he see our lives and know us?” Then I moved on to the concept of time. Time to us is the earth spinning around, all while spinning around the sun and each time it does, we say we’re getting older. Our measure of time is solely based on that rotation, down to a fraction of that rotation that we call a second. If you watch your clock, each tick of the second hand is approximately 1/32,000,000th of the time it takes the earth to rotate around the sun. Yet we judge our life by time. Hourly wages, hourly meetings, hourly parking. Everything’s been blocked off into some form of time giving reference to the rotation of the earth orbiting the sun. Simple solutions for simple minds. God’s time is not regulated by a spherical rock flying around a molten star at 67,000 miles per hour. No, God is outside of time and is not hindered by the rate of decay imposed on our natural bodies by wear and tear we endure here on this planet until we give up the ghost. With that said, here’s what I came to the conclusion of and it has brought better understanding as to how God can know and bless every person on earth. Each of our lives is an individual scroll that resides here on earth. Since God isn’t constrained to the time it takes the earth to travel around the sun, he is able to … trying to think of a good way to put this… God is fluid through time. Just as we can look at a scroll and see the beginning to the end, he sees our lives like a scroll and knows what is happening, what will happen, and what has happened. He can see any point in our existence and can (and does) interject at any point along the way. He knows how our story is going, he knows where it has been. He knows what we will need further down the road, because he has access to the scroll of our lives. He can lay it out and look at any point he desires. This is how he does indeed know each and every one of us. He has all our “scrolls” and has read EVERY one of them. He has seen us from start to finish and has placed blessings throughout our lives to help our mortal experience. Have you ever had something happen that was good for your life, and you think “Wow, I’m lucky!” or “The stars aligned just right for that one!”. There was no luck in it. God has placed people and things in our path to assist us on our journey. The “blessings” are there BEFORE we get to them. No luck needed. So, what is needed? Sounds like if it’s all planned out, then we really just need to wait for that next “blessing” and move on, right? It’s not quite that easy. Just like a parent that sets aside something for their child, oh, let’s say money to help with college, the parent often doesn’t tell the child this, but in their minds say “If my kid does good in school, isn’t a brat, doesn’t get arrested, when then they decide to go to college, I’ll step in and say ‘hey, I have a few dollars saved to help you with that’ and the child says “Oh, wow, what a miracle!” and to the child, it’s a miracle. To the parent, it’s just good planning that was contingent on the outcome of the child’s choices. See where I’m heading with this? So, God has placed blessings that have a goto line (for you programmers out there). If Billy does A then B will happen. If Billy does C then goto F. When we are doing what is right, keeping the commandments of God, and are constantly willing to do His will, then our reward is going to be greater than if we don’t do God’s will and ignore doing what is right. I believe he places rewards in various places and our actions depict which reward we will get. The child who avoided doing bad things, got good grades, and didn’t complain when asked to do simple chores will reap the benefits of the parent showing their support in whatever capacity the are able. On the other hand, if the child stumbles, falls, and goes against the will of the parents, then they will forfeit the blessing the parents would have given them for an education, a down payment on a car, etc… and instead will be fortunate if the parents use their money to bail them out of the bad situations they’ve put themselves in. Often, parents do use their resources to assist a fallen child, and how beautiful that is for the child. The parent would much rather have used resources to advance their child’s education or circumstances. God is our eternal Father and cares for us as much as any parent can care about a child. His love for us extends beyond our ability to comprehend and to me, that is a beautiful thing. So, to sum this up and prevent it from being too long, I’ll just say this. God is real, God is watching us. God cares for each of us and loves us more than we can imagine. He has placed blessings throughout our lives because he knows where we are, who we are, and how we will need his assistance. He has placed these blessings throughout our lives with those “goto” lines throughout. If we are obedient, and serve the Almighty, then we will reap the rewards he has set on that path for us. And they will be miraculous! This is not to say he will take away our hard times, it just means that he will give us ways to get through them and progress. If we don’t follow him, there are still rewards that will be reminders that he is there, and it is up to us to get on the right path to partake of the amazing “goto” lines he’s already plotted out for us. Maybe you’re reading this and just roll your eyes. Maybe you read this and think “John’s a nut”. No matter what you think, it’s ok. This is what I feel and understand, and it makes sense to me. This is why I live my life the way I do. My life is hard. My life is full of frustrations that make me cry into my pillow at times. My life is also filled with hope, and a love for a Heavenly Father that knew to place blessings in my way. Not so that I could not have to go through the trials in my life, but so that I can get through them and still praise my God throughout and say that I know He was there for me. Last thing. Often times our blessings are more than just something to help us. Often times WE are the blessing in someone else’s life (scroll) that God has placed in their path because he knew that we would be a blessing to that person. I look at my wife’s story (scroll) and mine, and the stories intersected at a perfect time when we both needed the blessings that we give to each other. I fully believe that a loving God said, “Ok, John’s had it rough, and it’s going to get rougher when he finds out why his body is failing him. Jen has had it rough, and it’s going to be even rougher on her when she builds up the courage to escape her situation. Let’s just put those two on a course to help each other when those times come.” And so it was, and I thank my God for the blessing Jen is to me, and strive to be that blessing for her. Ok, that’s the end. Thanks for reading, and I’m going to try to start writing things again on a more consistent basis. Hopefully you enjoy them! 2/17/2021
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