"And it came to pass that as my father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness."
1 Nephi 16:10
The ball that it talks about here is the Liahona, named later in Alma 37:38. Liahona may have just been the word for compass, but it was clearly more than the compasses that we have now, because it worked according to faith, and it also had writing on it that "changed from time to time" which gave them instructions, but also "understanding concerning the ways of the Lord" (1 Nephi 16:28-30).
In thinking about how the Lord provides for us, I was also thinking of the Brother of Jared. In both stories, God has them build ships/barges that can cross the water. Noah also did this part, and in all three stories God led them to a promised land (Moses also for the promised land part). In the Brother of Jared story, the Lord answered a question by asking the Brother of Jared to figure it out, and he came up with 16 small stones that the Lord could touch to cause them to give off light. In this case, an amazing tool was just left at the door of the tent, but Nephi mentions that it was prepared "by the hand of the Lord" as well (2 Nephi 5:12).
Our lives are like this too, even though we aren't all prophets. These are patterns to the way that the Lord works with his people. We all have purposes and goals that are set by God, pulling us out of the life that we thought we would live and helping us strive for more. We don't always embrace that at first (like Jonah), but when we see the results of our own choices, we often ask God to help us back to his way.
The lord helps us build what we need to get to our destination... not always a ship. Perhaps a career, or a family, or a trade or a hobby... to learn something new, to expand upon our talents... to have an opportunity to affect the world and other people's lives for good. He answers our questions, not always in the way that we wanted (as with Christ), but always in the way that will help us become who we need to be... our best selves. Along the way he blesses us miraculously. Maybe not with glowing stones, and maybe not with an amazing faith-powered compass, but miraculous still, whatever we need but don't have tailored to our own lives.
The trick of course is that, just like the Liahona, the miracles in our lives are also faith powered. Just as the Liahona stopped working when Nephi's brothers tied him up on the sea (1 Nephi 18:12), the miracles in our own lives can stop working and stop showing us the way when we go astray. The Liahona worked "according to their faith in God; therefore, if they had faith to believe that those spindles should point the way they should go, behold it was done" (Alma 37:40), and so it is with us. We have to maintain our faith in the Lord, and trust in his spirit, or we lose the way.
Even though the things that God asks us to do seem small, and sometimes not that important, things like prayer, tithing, scripture study, fasting, temple attendance, church attendance, and listening to or reading conference talks... those things can help us keep God's spirit with us, and enable us to keep our personal God-compasses pointed in the right direction. When we start believing that we don't need those things, or that we can handle it all on our own, then slowly things stop working, and we might start getting off track... leaving the path that the Lord has laid out for us.
Today, let's work on making sure the miracles are working in our lives by nurturing our faith, by doing as God asks, praying to him, and listening to his words through the scriptures. As we do, we will be guided in the way that we should go in our personal wilderness, and shown the way to our promised land.
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