That Which Cannot Be Uttered

In many of the most sublime spiritual experiences that are recorded in the scriptures, the record tells us that the encounter with the Divine was so powerful that words could not describe the event or express the feelings of the heart.  Paul wrote of how the “the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26).  These events we read of in holy writ were so sacred and powerful that they could not be described in common language or written down.  The power of the Spirit spoke to those involved through feelings that “[could not] be uttered” or communicated to others.  I think these types of experiences are at the core the connection that each can make with our heavenly home and heavenly family when stripped of the worldliness around us.  Deep down we know that we are indeed “pilgrims and strangers on the earth,” leaving us with a longing to one day home that cannot be expressed in words (D&C 45:13). 

                Perhaps the most powerful of these types of experiences that we read of in the scriptures is found in the account of the Savior’s visit to the Nephites.  On three different occasions during His ministry there we have this kind of language telling us that what took place was so sublime it could not be recorded.  The first was after Christ had healed those who were sick and afflicted.  We read that He “knelt upon the earth; and behold he prayed unto the Father, and the things which he prayed cannot be written, and the multitude did bear record who heard him.  And after this manner do they bear record: The eye hath never seen, neither hath the ear heard, before, so great and marvelous things as we saw and heard Jesus speak unto the Father;  And no tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father” (3 Nephi 17:15-17).  I’m not sure what other more language could be used to describe such an indescribable event.  It wasn’t so much their physical senses that were the participants in this scene, but it was their hearts that did conceive of such great joy as to defy all description.  They were home in the presence of their God, and their hearts knew it.  A second similar description comes a couple chapters later when the Savior again prayed to the Father for them: “And it came to pass that he went again a little way off and prayed unto the Father; And tongue cannot speak the words which he prayed, neither can be written by man the words which he prayed” (3 Nephi 19:31-32).  So powerful were His words and the witness of the Spirit that accompanied them that again they were left without language to express what their hearts felt.  A third description of the same kind came at the end of the record of His visit when the disciples “were caught up into heaven, and saw and heard unspeakable things.  And it was forbidden them that they should utter; neither was it given unto them power that they could utter the things which they saw and heard” (3 Nephi 28:13-14).  They were given some kind of experience in their heavenly home, and even if they had wanted to describe the experience there they had not even the power to do so.  They were home in the presence of their Father, and like the missionary or soldier who sees his parents for the first time after a very long time, there just aren’t words to capture the feeling of the reunion.  And it’s that reunion with our heavenly home and family that is the soul’s deepest desire.