Great and Marvelous Plans

In the priesthood session of general conference President Nelson said this, “I know the Lord has great and marvelous plans for us—individually and collectively. With compassion and patience, He says: ‘Ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath … prepared for you; And ye cannot bear all things now; nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along.’ My dear brothers, I testify that He has been, and is, indeed leading us along, as we seek to hear Him.” I love this idea that the Lord has great and marvelous plans for us in the future—in our day to day activities it can be hard to have a vision of what the future might be. The Lord put it this way: “For I, the Lord, have put forth my hand to exert the powers of heaven; ye cannot see it now, yet a little while and ye shall see it, and know that I am, and that I will come and reign with my people” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:119). For the most part we cannot see what He has in store in the future; He said it this way in another scripture: “Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation” (Doctrine and Covenants 58:3). As Paul put it, we see “through a glass darkly” now in mortality and can’t fully comprehend what the Lord has in store for those who seek to follow Him. As another revelation declares, “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).

                While these scriptures certainly speak of some blessings that may be distant in our future, surely these promises are meant to refer as well to great plans that the Lord has for us here and now. As I thought about the prophet’s statement, I realized that it is also an invitation to look for the great things the Lord is already doing to guide our lives now. It is easy to let the mundane cloud our view of the marvelous blessings that the Lord is already giving us. For example, when the Savior was among the Nephites, He helped them see something in a new light that they already had: their children. He said to them, “Behold your little ones” (3 Nephi 17:23). He wanted them to truly look upon their children and see the glory about them. Surely He would say the same to us today, inviting us to look upon our loved ones with new eyes and see how their presence in our lives is part of His “great and marvelous plans” for us individually. This reminds me of the message of the popular country song My Front Porch Looking In which includes these lyrics:

 

I've traveled here and everywhere

Following my job

I've seen the paintings from the air

Brushed by the hand of God

The mountains and the canyons reach from sea to shining sea

But I can't wait to get back home

To the one he made for me

It's anywhere I'll ever go and everywhere I've been

Nothing takes my breath away

Like my front porch looking in

 

I think I figuratively look out the front door of my life, wishing I could accomplish some “great and marvelous plan" from the Lord in the world, but perhaps I really just need to turn around and behold His precious children He has already entrusted to my care. As the statement from Voltaire goes, “Il faut cultiver son jardin”—we should focus on seeing and cultivating the blessings the Lord is already giving to us instead of looking “beyond the mark” for something greater. Surely the Savior indeed has marvelous blessings in store for us in the future if we will stay true to Him. But He has also done great things already for us that we can “behold” and cherish even now.