The Grandeur and Presence of God

I was impressed by this description of the Bishop of Digne in Les Misérables. Describing how in the evenings he would go to his small garden and contemplate the mysteries of God, the narrator recounted: “He was there alone, communing with himself, peaceful, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the serenity of the ether, moved amid the darkness by the visible splendor of the constellations and the invisible splendor of God, opening his heart to the thoughts which fall from the Unknown. At such moments, while he offered his heart at the hour when nocturnal flowers offer their perfume, illuminated like a lamp amid the starry night, as he poured himself out in ecstasy in the midst of the universal radiance of creation, he could not have told himself, probably, what was passing in his spirit; he felt something take its flight from him, and something descend into him. Mysterious exchange of the abysses of the soul with the abysses of the universe! He thought of the grandeur and presence of God; of the future eternity, that strange mystery; of the eternity past, a mystery still more strange; of all the infinities, which pierced their way into all his senses, beneath his eyes; and, without seeking to comprehend the incomprehensible, he gazed upon it. He did not study God; he was dazzled by him. He considered those magnificent conjunctions of atoms, which communicate aspects to matter, reveal forces by verifying them, create individualities in unity, proportions in extent, the innumerable in the infinite, and, through light, produce beauty. These conjunctions are formed and dissolved incessantly; hence life and death…. Was not this narrow enclosure, with the heavens for a ceiling, sufficient to enable him to adore God in his most divine works, in turn? Does not this comprehend all, in fact? and what is there left to desire beyond it? A little garden in which to walk, and immensity in which to dream. At one’s feet that which can be cultivated and plucked; over head that which one can study and meditate upon: some flowers on earth, and all the stars in the sky.” Indeed, we should all seek to commune with the divine through meditation and the beauty of His creations. Like Nephi we should “[sit] pondering in [our] heart” in order to learn the things of God. It was after this that Nephi received his great vision of the Savior and the last days, and surely revelation comes to us as we “let the solemnities of eternity rest upon [our] minds” (Doctrine and Covenants 43:34). Moroni’s prerequisite to his promise of coming to the knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon was this: “Remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts” (Moroni 10:3). Pondering brings the power of the Holy Ghost.  

               Other scriptural accounts record revelations that came after pondering the things of God. The Prophet Joseph recorded in his account of the vision of the three degrees of glory: “And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:19). President Joseph F. Smith similarly wrote as an introduction to his great revelation on the gospel being preached in the Spirit World: “On the third of October, in the year nineteen hundred and eighteen, I sat in my room pondering over the scriptures; And reflecting upon the great atoning sacrifice that was made by the Son of God, for the redemption of the world; And the great and wonderful love made manifest by the Father and the Son in the coming of the Redeemer into the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 138:1-3). We read this about Nephi, the son of Helaman, after teaching the people and being largely rejected by them: “And it came to pass that Nephi went his way towards his own house, pondering upon the things which the Lord had shown unto him…. And it came to pass as he was thus pondering in his heart, behold, a voice came unto him saying: Blessed art thou, Nephi, for those things which thou hast done” (Helaman 10:3-4). The voice of the Lord came to him as he was pondering. After the Savior’s first day among the Nephites, He gave them this instruction: “Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and prepare your minds for the morrow, and I come unto you again” (3 Nephi 17:3). Pondering the words that He had already given to them would prepare them to receive Him and His message again the next day.     

               The Lord gave this rebuke and instruction to David Whitmer in 1830: “Your mind has been on the things of the earth more than on the things of me, your Maker, and the ministry whereunto you have been called; and you have not given heed unto my Spirit, and to those who were set over you, but have been persuaded by those whom I have not commanded. Wherefore, you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ponder upon the things which you have received” (Doctrine and Covenants 30:2-3). The Lord wants our minds to be more on the things of Him than on the things of the earth, and His instruction to “ponder upon the things which you have received” is surely important counsel for all of us. We can seek to follow the example of the Bishop of Digne—who had very little in the way of material things—and focus our minds more often on the “universal radiance of creation” and the “grandeur and presence of God.”