Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Alma 13:31 -- On Things Not Written

"And Alma spake many more words unto the people, which are not written in this book."
Alma 13:31


Kind of a weird verse to pick, I know, but it sort of struck me today as I was reading that most of our lives are like this... part of the things that aren't written.  One thing we can do for the people who come after us is actually write stuff down. :)  On the other hand, I think that we somehow think that our lives are not as cool as those that we read about in the scriptures, and I don't think that is true.

We're the children of God--do we have any idea what that means?  It means that there are the seeds of greatness within every single one of us, and that we *all* have the potential to be extraordinary... but part of what makes it extraordinary is that we aren't all amazing in the same way.  We have different talents and different ways of thinking and different personalities, and those are good things because we work in a kind of tapestry with other people and with God to weave the world, and excel in our individual area.  I think of Abish in the Book of Mormon as an example.  What do we know of her?  We know that she had been converted to the Lord because of a remarkable vision of her father (Alma 19:16), and that she was in the right place at the right time to make a difference in one event in the Book of Mormon.  And yet, we don't know the vision or any more of her life than her gathering the people and raising the queen from fainting... but don't you *want* to know?  Or about what happened to Amaleki's brother (Omni 1:30)?

I think we're all like that.  Maybe our stories are unwritten, but they are still there, and they still matter to the people around us, and especially to God who knows all of our stories.  And someday we'll be able to know all the things, as Paul hints at in 1 Corinthians 13:12, and I think we'll be able to know each other's stories, and realize the vast and amazing thing life is, and the wonder of creating and nurturing new stories, as God does, as an author who delights in happy endings. :)

Today, let's live our stories well, and remember that they matter, written or not.  And hey, let's take the time to write something down now and then, for posterity.  ... They are going to want to know, just as we do. :)

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