Mormon Musings

Enoch surely had received special lessons in patience in the development of his special city "in process of time." Though His enemies hated and feared the city of Enoch, they nevertheless stood "afar off" out of respect for Enoch's access to divine power, which access depended upon Enoch's personal righteousness.  As the results of his tutorials, the Enoch who had earlier felt inadequate later actually moved mountains.  A matured Enoch, once slow of speech, become so powerful the people trembled when he spoke, "so great was the power of the language which God had given him." But Enoch never forgot the Source of his eloquence...Yet it all began with a meek lad who was slow of speech and who was disliked by the people. (See also Ether 12:27) Neal A. Maxwell, Even As I Am , p. 48 In acknowledging that we cannot comprehend all that God comprehends, this attitude should apply not alone to the galaxies, but also to the constellation of characteristics th...

And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of  earths  like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy  creations ; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever; Moses 7:30

For now, though we can mercifully see something of our eventual possibilities, you and I are aware of our present limitations. Tolkien wrote wisely: It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.  [Gandalf in J. R. R. Tolkien,  The Return of the King  (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), p. 190] Hence we desperately need the gospel's wisdom not only for eternity, but also "for the succour of those years wherein we are set," in order "to do what is in us." Enoch obtained revelation and reassurance and gratefully exclaimed of God, "Yet thou art there" (Moses 7:30). This is what you and I want to know of him: Does he know me, love me, and care for me? We can have the same reassurance given to Enoch. How in...

Astronomers tell us that our solar system is located in a spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, a flat disc-shaped cluster of stars approximately 100,000 light years across at its widest point.  A light year is the distance light travels in one year.  Moving at the speed of 186,000 miles per second, a beam of light traverses 5.7 trillion miles in 365 days.  The size of our galaxy, then, in miles, is a staggering 5.7 trillion multiplied by 100,000.  Our galaxy is estimated to contain at least 200 billion stars, half of which likely possess solar systems similar to our own.  The next closest galaxy is Andromeda, a star system much like our own Milky Way, approximately 2.2 million light years away from us.  Furthermore, our best telescopes can probe outward into space to a distance of over 10 billion light years and view over 50 billion galaxies, each of which possesses billions of stars.  And these galaxies are the only ones we can detect with the presen...