Perspective
As I have
experienced Christmas this year, the words of a Christmas hymn have been
running through my head…
“And in despair I bowed my head, ‘there is no peace on earth’
I said, ‘for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth good will to
men.’
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep, ‘God is not dead
nor doth he sleep, the wrong shall fail the right prevail with peace on earth
good will to men.’”[1]
During one
of these events, I had a traffic director working for me who it seemed was
struggling to send people in the proper direction. I would call him on the
radio and tell him to direct the cars a certain way, and he would send a couple
of vehicles, then he would revert to sending them in the opposite direction.
After this happened a couple of times, I asked him why he kept sending them the
wrong way. His reply was that there were cars backed up in the direction I was
telling him to send them, so he was sending them to the other exit where he
couldn’t see anyone waiting. That was when I realized that the problem was not
with his intent, but with his perspective.
You see,
this traffic director was stationed on the lowest level of the parking garage
where he could see the cars backing up in the exit he was being told to send
them to, however I was stationed on the top level of the garage where I could
look down and see how long the lines were at all of the different exits. So, in
his efforts to keep people from having to wait in the line he could see, he
inadvertently was sending them to wait in much longer lines that he could not
see from his location. After explaining this to the traffic director, he
learned that he needed to trust in the supervisors who had a higher perspective
and by doing so he would be better able to assist the parkers who trusted him
to get them out of the garage.
How often
are we like the traffic director on the lower level of the garage, thinking we
have a great understanding of the world and life to the point where we question
the commandments, the love, or even the very existence of our Father in Heaven?
How often are we limited by our mortal perspective and forget that God stands
on a much higher level and has sight beyond our understanding?
We see pain
and suffering and say “How can a loving God allow such things.” We see war and
hatred and say “Surely, there is no god, or maybe he is asleep.” We see
children hungry and dying and in anger say “God must be cruel.” From our
perspective we cannot understand.
While serving a mission together, in the city of Ammoniha, Alma and Amulek suffered many trials including being imprisoned on false charges and beaten by the judges and lawyers in the city. However, their greatest suffering came from being forced to watch as the people whom they had taught and who had believed their testimonies, specifically the women and children, were rounded up by their enemies and cast into a fire. “When Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, he also was pained; and he said unto Alma:
Amulek from his perspective,
knew that God could save the people from the flames. Alma from his perspective
knew that they were already saved.
The Apostle
Paul taught “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”[4]
We tell
children, “Don’t play in the road,” or “Don’t get too close to the fire.” They
don’t understand why. Sometimes we remove their agency and forcibly keep them
from danger, at other times we allow them the freedom to learn and to grow.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
said “the arc of the Moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The
arc of eternity is even longer, and it bends past justice toward mercy. Our
existance did not begin at birth, and it does not end at death. And while our
sight is obscured, Our Father’s is not, and His love for us is unconditional
and when we cannot understand how such hate, pain, and suffering can exist in
our world, we must remember that Our Savior has “decended below them all,”[5] giving him the
infinite perspective to work out an infinite atonement.
The Lord
allows us to make our choices, He allows us to learn. He allows us to hurt one
another, and He allows us to help one another. We must remember that He stands
on a higher level, and that He knows all things from the beginning. We trust
that “He loveth His children,” and while we “do not know the meaning of all
things”[6]
we know that His judgements will not only be just, but will be merciful
according to his infinite love.
“Surely, He taught us to love one
another; His law is love and His Gospel is Peace.
“Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother, and in
His name all oppression shall cease.”[7]
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