Nature’s God

The last weekend in June I went on a camping trip with my ward. I blogged a bit about it on the first of July. The weather was great. The water was warm. I had fun out riding on the boat. It was a real good trip on the whole.

But I think my favorite part of all was getting there at night, setting up my tent, and then getting in and laying down. The whole top of my tent was open because I’d left the rain guard off to get more ventilation. I had the whole Milky Way open to me as I laid there in awe at God’s creations.

The stars are used many times in the scriptures as symbols of light, truth, guidance, stability, and posterity. As I stared up at them, I couldn’t help but be amazed at what a perfect symbol they are.

President Hinckley often used the stars, and specifically the Polar Star as a symbol of faith, the atonement, and testimony.

Faith? There can be no doubt about it. When doubts arose, when tragedies struck, the quiet voice of faith was heard in the stillness of the night as certain and reassuring as was the place of the polar star in the heavens above (“The Miracle of Faith,” Ensign, May 2001).

Regardless of what may come, may faith, immovable and constant, shine above us as the polar star (“Till We Meet Again,” Ensign, Nov. 2001).

We know not what lies ahead of us. We know not what the coming days will bring. We live in a world of uncertainty… But one thing we do know. Like the polar star in the heavens, regardless of what the future holds, there stands the Redeemer of the world, the Son of God, certain and sure as the anchor of our immortal lives. He is the rock of our salvation, our strength, our comfort, the very focus of our faith (“We Look to Christ,” Ensign, May 2002).

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ must be a beacon light before you, a polar star in your sky (“Stay on the High Road,” Ensign, May 2004).

The stars, with their light that stretches in all directions and times, is a wonderful testament to the power of the God of all Nature. All things testify of Him. Lying on my back looking at the stars that night, I was so grateful to know my place in the vast universe, and who I am among all of it.

Not only the stars testify of God, but all of creation does. I love how Elder Robert R. Steuer stated it in this last General Conference:

Our testimonies are strengthened as we reverently observe the great universe God has created for us. The Lord declared to Enoch, “All things are created and made to bear record of me” (Moses 6:63). Alma bore a similar testimony to Korihor, the anti-Christ: “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) (“The Power of Light and Truth,” Ensign, May 2008).

What a wonderful world we live in. While I was in Brasil and saw all the of the beautiful creation that was there, I often felt that maybe God took the seventh day for rest so that he could spend time simply enjoying this world.

All things testify of God. The stars in their places in the sky giving guidance to us here on earth, filling our hearts and minds with wonder and awe. The beauty of a sunset. The life that is found in all animals and plants. The love that people share. It was a loving God who gave us all of this. There is a God. He lives.