One of the most oft asked questions by those seeking further knowledge and spiritual growth are: Who am I? Where did I come from? and Where am I going?
These are natural questions as one grows older and begins to look around at the world we live in and wonder what in the world is going on. Many believe there is no answer. But there is . . . the plan of salvation provides that answer.
We’re going to talk about the first two questions today. Who am I? – and – Where did I come from?
We did not come out of nowhere, nor when we die will we disappear into nothingness. Life did not begin with your birth. It began long, long before that.
We have a Heavenly Father, He is God. We call Him Heavenly Father because He is the father of our spirits. When we were all still spirits, living in a time known as pre-mortality, we were born to Heavenly Parents. There is a hymn “O My Father” written by Karen Lynn Davidson (b. 1934) and the words read:
O my Father, thou that dwellest
In the high and glorious place,
When shall I regain thy presence
And again behold thy face?
In thy holy habitation,
Did my spirit once reside?
In my first primeval childhood,
Was I nurtured by thy side?
We did reside in that holy place for millennia. When the time came for us to continue our progression (our learning and growth) our Father in Heaven presented a plan for mortality, the plan of salvation.
He knows you, yes you. He loves you and wants you to come home. He has prepared a way for you to return and the very first step on that path is to remember Him and to remember who you are.
For a wise and glorious purpose
Thou hast placed me here on earth
And withheld the recollection
Of my former friends and birth;
Yet ofttimes a secret something
Whispered, “You’re a stranger here,”
And I felt that I had wandered
From a more exalted sphere.
You did not emerge from the slime and mud, as the world would have you believe, but from a glorious and beautiful place, held closely in the arms of your Father in Heaven before you began your mortal journey.
As you have held your children, or been held by your parents, so did your heavenly parents. As your heart has hurt as each child has stumbled or fallen, so have the hearts of your heavenly parents.
John 17:3 tells us: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Do you remember who you are? Is there a whisper of recognition? Do you remember our Heavenly Father? If your physical being does not, your spirit does.
I had learned to call thee Father,
Thru thy Spirit from on high,
But, until the key of knowledge
Was restored, I knew not why.
In the heav’ns are parents single?
No, the thought makes reason stare!
Truth is reason; truth eternal
Tells me I’ve a mother there.
We are children of heavenly parents and the paths we walk in this world were never meant to be walked alone.
Tomorrow we’ll talk about why we are here on earth.
