The Lord Hath Created the Earth

Yesterday ESPN’s College Game Day was broadcast from BYU in Provo, Utah in preparation for the football game between BYU and Notre Dame. At one point during the broadcast, the announcer Pat Mcafee pulled out a Book of Mormon and began to read from it. He read this verse found in 1 Nephi 17:36: “Behold, the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it." He then said, “As Nephi said about the children possessing it, and I don’t know if this is what the Book of Mormon was referring to, but if they were possessing offense, I think BYU’s great at it.” It was met with a lot of cheers from the BYU crowd who were clearly cheering not just for the football team but for the Book of Mormon itself. And though it was lighthearted—and certainly not the interpretation that Nephi had in mind—I thought it was positive to see the Book of Mormon get some national air time like that. Surely Nephi could have never imagined that the words he spoke to his older brothers in the Middle East, trying to inspire them to help fulfill the Lord’s commandment to build a ship, would have been repeated like that to a crowd of cheering fans over 2500 years later and about 8000 miles away!

                So what did Nephi mean by these words? I believe this statement to Laman and Lemuel, spoken in the context of a history lesson about the children of Israel, teaches us a powerful truth. This incredible earth, massive compared to our size as humans, was created for us. God made it all so that we could come here to gain experience and prepare to return to His presence. When we look up at mountain peaks or contemplate ocean waves or spend time among forest trees, we should remember that God created it all for us to have a place to come in mortality. When we look at the stunning colors that the sunset casts upon the earth every night, we should remember that God created this earth and its beauty for us. Earlier this week we looked out our back window at the end of a rainstorm and found the most incredible rainbow I have probably ever seen. Every color was clearly visible as it stretched perfectly across the sky in front of the mountains behind our house. That, along with so many other aspects of the creation, remind us that God sent us here and has filled this earth with signs of His love. Indeed, as Alma stated later in the Book of Mormon, “Yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator” (Alma 30:44). As we take time each day to really see the incredible world around us, we can feel this assurance of Alma that all of this does indeed witness that there is a Supreme Creator who sent you to earth for a reason. And that reason had nothing to do with a football team—it was to do much greater work.  

                There is another, related lesson from this short verse that Pat Mcaffee quoted: “He hath created his children.” In other words, we are the children of God! You, Samuel, were created in the image of God and He sent you to inhabit this earth for a reason. As His children, we have incredible potential to do great things on this earth, and we have a work here to fulfil as we prepare to return to His presence. As the Family Proclamation declares, “All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.” God created our spirits and sent us here to earth to accomplish great things through faith in Him, and our ultimate destiny is to return to Him to inherit eternal life.