"And now remember, my son, if it were not for the plan of redemption, (laying it aside) as soon as they were dead their souls were miserable, being cut off from the presence of the Lord.
And now, there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state, which man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience;
Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God."
Alma 42:11-13
In trying to wrap my head around the idea of all of this--physical and spiritual death, the fall, the plan of redemption, etc. I have been trying to imagine someone who wants to grow up and be a pilot.
In our analogy, this is our aspiration, and we have dreamed of flying, and our overindulgent parents even borrow a plane from a family friend. We have everything we need to succeed, we think, and against the friend's advice and clear warnings, we decide to take it out for a spin right away. ... And obviously and very predictably, it is an epic failure. :) We have no idea what we are doing, and have never even played a flight simulator game, let alone had a real lesson. We don't know anything about it. Thanks to watching movies we are able to start it up and get a little bit off the ground, but then the plane crashes. Thankfully we are somehow able to bail out and survive.
So survival... great, but after getting out of a brief stint in the hospital, we've lost a lot of hope in our piloting career. We still have no idea how to fly, and now we're in trouble for crashing a plane and endangering people on the ground, and we've basically bankrupted our parents. It isn't looking good. Maybe ditch-digging is a better career choice, under the circumstances.
Miraculously though, the family friend bails us out, pays for a lawyer, and says we can pay off the price of the plane by coming and helping out at his airfield... no ditch digging required. In the process of doing work at the airfield, a little every day, we have opportunities to learn more about planes and how they work, and if we're willing to work hard and save up, we can even save up enough for flying lessons at the discounted price our family friend offers. It's a second chance, and an opportunity to grow and learn and prepare better so that we still have a chance to reach our dream.
It's definitely not a perfect analogy, but this is like life. None of us are perfect and we're going to fail when we make that joyriding-in-a-plane level mistake. The fact that we aren't already dead is a tribute to God's love for and patience with us. :) The only person who has ever not crashed the first time is Christ, who listened and studied harder than any of the rest of us... and his father is the neighbor, who is willing to help us reach our dreams, even though the plane we crashed belonged to his son.
Our lives are a time to prepare better and to be ready when we're faced with the real test... when we have the chance to get in that cockpit again and fly at a real altitude. Everything we do up to that point determines whether we are going to successfully fly, or crash a lot more seriously, or maybe just give up and let go of that dream.
So, let's not take the analogy too seriously, because there are a lot of things wrong with it, but perhaps it is something that helps us wrap our minds around some of the ideas here, and think about what we're doing with our lives, and take advantage of the incredible opportunities and blessings we've been granted. :)
And now, there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state, which man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience;
Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God."
Alma 42:11-13
In trying to wrap my head around the idea of all of this--physical and spiritual death, the fall, the plan of redemption, etc. I have been trying to imagine someone who wants to grow up and be a pilot.
In our analogy, this is our aspiration, and we have dreamed of flying, and our overindulgent parents even borrow a plane from a family friend. We have everything we need to succeed, we think, and against the friend's advice and clear warnings, we decide to take it out for a spin right away. ... And obviously and very predictably, it is an epic failure. :) We have no idea what we are doing, and have never even played a flight simulator game, let alone had a real lesson. We don't know anything about it. Thanks to watching movies we are able to start it up and get a little bit off the ground, but then the plane crashes. Thankfully we are somehow able to bail out and survive.
So survival... great, but after getting out of a brief stint in the hospital, we've lost a lot of hope in our piloting career. We still have no idea how to fly, and now we're in trouble for crashing a plane and endangering people on the ground, and we've basically bankrupted our parents. It isn't looking good. Maybe ditch-digging is a better career choice, under the circumstances.
Miraculously though, the family friend bails us out, pays for a lawyer, and says we can pay off the price of the plane by coming and helping out at his airfield... no ditch digging required. In the process of doing work at the airfield, a little every day, we have opportunities to learn more about planes and how they work, and if we're willing to work hard and save up, we can even save up enough for flying lessons at the discounted price our family friend offers. It's a second chance, and an opportunity to grow and learn and prepare better so that we still have a chance to reach our dream.
It's definitely not a perfect analogy, but this is like life. None of us are perfect and we're going to fail when we make that joyriding-in-a-plane level mistake. The fact that we aren't already dead is a tribute to God's love for and patience with us. :) The only person who has ever not crashed the first time is Christ, who listened and studied harder than any of the rest of us... and his father is the neighbor, who is willing to help us reach our dreams, even though the plane we crashed belonged to his son.
Our lives are a time to prepare better and to be ready when we're faced with the real test... when we have the chance to get in that cockpit again and fly at a real altitude. Everything we do up to that point determines whether we are going to successfully fly, or crash a lot more seriously, or maybe just give up and let go of that dream.
So, let's not take the analogy too seriously, because there are a lot of things wrong with it, but perhaps it is something that helps us wrap our minds around some of the ideas here, and think about what we're doing with our lives, and take advantage of the incredible opportunities and blessings we've been granted. :)
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