Lehi finished telling the boys about his Tree of Life vision and went on to talk about many other things that he had seen. This is the first mention of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon.
"Yeah, even six hundred years from the time that my father left Jerusalem, a prophet would the Lord God raise up among the Jews - even a Messiah, or in other words, a Savior of the world."
He saw that John the Baptist would come before Jesus, to prepare the way for him. He saw him baptize Jesus Christ. He saw the crucifixion and the resurrection, and the scattering of Israel. He also saw many more things that weren't written, and he testified of all of these things to his children.
"...I, Nephi, was desirous also that I might see, and hear, and know of these things..."
So he prayed and pondered on the things that his father had said, and was caught up in a vision of his own. He saw the Lord, who "spake unto [him] as a man speaketh with another". The amount of faith that Nephi had to be able to see the Lord and to see the things he saw must have been infinite. More faith than I can imagine. And faith in what? He had faith in Jesus Christ, who would not even be born for nearly six hundred years. To me, this is perfect faith. I have faith in Jesus Christ, and I know that he will come again. But I don't know that my faith is as perfect as Nephi's. Jesus Christ did come, and there is record of his baptism, crucifixion and resurrection. I have that record, and can read of all the details surrounding those events. My faith is built upon that knowledge. Nephi had no such knowledge. His faith was based on a vision, in which he saw the condescension of God - something that seems unfathomable. But he also had perfect faith in the Lord's ability to answer the questions of his heart, so there was no second-guessing anything that he saw.
Nephi wanted to see and hear and know, and so he put off all distractions and pondered in his heart. And the Lord showed him all he wanted to see. How many times do we read "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you", and really take it to heart? We pray, and we seek, and we knock. And then we walk away. Too often, we don't take the time to ponder in our hearts and listen for the answer that we're seeking.
This is one of my favorite pictures of the Savior. He's always there, right outside the door, waiting to be let in. Notice that there is no door knob. He can't come in unless we open the door and let Him in.
There are so many distractions! Even as I'm writing this, my washing machine signal is beeping, my phone is alerting me to waiting text messages, and email notifications keep popping up on my screen. Not to mention the kids coming in and out. We do not live in a quiet world. We need to take the time to make our space quiet, at least long enough to be able to see and hear and know the answers that we seek. We need to ponder. We need to let Him in.
Aunt Heather...its Kaity and you're gonna kill me trying to keep up with you, but I think you're very inspiring. I don't think I would be reading again since I just got done in June...so thank you and I love you!
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