Flowers, Crowns, and Kingdoms

Yesterday my four-year-old girl found in a closet an ornamented wedding bouquet of artificial flowers and jewels which she quickly seized. She just loves dressing up in fancy clothes—even refusing sometimes to take off her church shoes when she goes to bed—and this little artificial bouquet of flowers simply captivated her. She held it, looked it over, admired it, and set her heart upon this find of a lifetime. I explained that it was her Mom’s from her wedding (turns out it was actually from my wife’s sister’s wedding) and that she probably shouldn’t play with it. As she sat on the bed contemplating it she inquired, “Mom was married a long time ago?” When I answered in the affirmative she thought about this and I could see her little mind working as she then longingly said, “So she doesn’t need it anymore?” I could not help but laugh as I realized what she was saying—if Mom was married a long time ago, then she does not need this anymore and I can have it! She just couldn’t bear to not have this beautiful treasure.

               As I thought about this conversation, I was reminded of scriptures in which the Lord indeed promises us His blessings using symbolic language treasures and crowns, mansions and kingdoms. To the disciples in His mortal ministry He said, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). In our day He similarly promised, “Lift up your hearts and be glad, for I am in your midst, and am your advocate with the Father; and it is his good will to give you the kingdom” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:5). Kingdoms are of course accompanied by treasure, and we are to “Treasure up for [our] soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:3.) Not only does the Father want to give us the kingdom; He wants us to have everything He has: “And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:38). Often He has symbolized these great blessings He wants to give us with a crown, such as when He said of Warren Cowdery, “If he continue to be a faithful witness and a light unto the church I have prepared a crown for him in the mansions of my Father” (Doctrine and Covenants 106:8). He similarly said in another revelation, “For those that live shall inherit the earth, and those that die shall rest from all their labors, and their works shall follow them; and they shall receive a crown in the mansions of my Father, which I have prepared for them” (Doctrine and Covenants 59:2). I do not think that we will in the next life actually wear physical crowns or have treasure chests or live in literal mansions, but the symbolism is used to help us see that the blessings that await the faithful are beyond our imagination. They are better than the happy endings of all the fairy tales. As the Prophet Joseph recorded, “For since the beginning of the world have not men heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath any eye seen, O God, besides thee, how great things thou hast prepared for him that waiteth for thee” (Doctrine and Covenants 133:45). The key, then, is for us to truly desire the things of heaven and to seek after all the blessings the Lord has in store for us. We should have the same heartfelt and pure desire for the things of God like my daughter had for that little artificial bouquet of flowers, hoping desperately and doing all we can so that the Lord will grant them to us.