3374 miles

That's a long way.

I was thinking about what to study and I realized I will probably never read a volume of scripture from cover to cover again in my life. I jump around too much. I used to feel guilty about this, since we always get challenged by the stake presidency to read the Book of Mormon, say, over the summer. I never finish because I go off on tangents. I can't help it and so I will celebrate it. I give you the parable of the electrical box:

At the bottom of our driveway in Tennessee is a beautiful tulip poplar tree. Behind the tree is the green electrical box for the property. What an eyesore. I have tried planting various flowers, shrubs, and vines to hide the box, to no avail. They all die. A plastic plant wrapped around a plastic trestle doesn't seem right. I got discouraged. Then I had an epiphany, and I can tell you those things hurt when they come out. But I digress. I decided to celebrate the box. So I got some bricks and placed them ever so curvily around the box and tree, then I got some river gravel and made a little Japanese gravel garden, sort of, inside the curvily arranged bricks. Nice. Now it looks like I MEANT to do it and that is ok. "What a beautiful little, er, Japanese rock slash brick garden thingie he's put there. And, oh! Why, look at that electrical box which sort of compliments the oriental, sort of, look to the whole affair, kind of a yin/yang, good/evil, feng shui, Laurel and Hardy feel to it...er..." is what people driving by think. I don't know what they actually say, but that's what they think.

So I do the same thing with my scripture study. I will never be able to read a volume of scripture through cover to cover, so I celebrate my inability to stick with it by jumping around and studying little topics here and there in a feng shui sort of way.

In that vein, I was wondering what to study today and just thought of Moses 1 where Moses is visited by God the Son and is transfigured in his presence. Then he is left alone to ponder. Satan fills the power vacuum and tempts and then threatens Moses and Moses is scared witless and then rises to the challenge by calling upon the name of God and remembering his standing with God: God called him His son (small s), but said he was LIKE his Son (big s) [Christ is speaking for His Father here].

Moses then commands Satan in the name of the Only Begotten to depart, which Satan does after howling and ranting and throwing a massive fit, and then God comes back to Moses and fills the vacuum again this time for good and forever.

Isn't that just like the Savior's atonement and life? Christ is in contact with His Father constantly, indeed is transfigured on the mount, and then is sort of left to his own in the garden to fulfill the atonement. Satan enters to fill the power vacuum and you know he tried to destroy the Savior there. Jesus rises above this and remembers who He is and His relationship to His Father and Satan flees. I'm sure Satan threw another fit and howled and ranted because this time he failed ultimately.

Then, you know that after the atonement was finalized on the cross, and Christ uttered the words "It is finished" he was restored to His Father and was resurrected and ascended into glory.

There are types of Christ all over this world. He put them there to remind us who He is and to give us something to challenge us and for us to discover.