Before birth we existed in Spirit Form in the Presence of God in Our Heavenly Home
When we came to earth our physical bodies were made in the image of our spirit bodies which were in the image of God. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1: 27 in the Bible). The Apostle Paul explained: “For-as-much then as we are the offspring of God…” (Acts 17: 29 in the Bible)
“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us… shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” (Hebrews 12: 9 in the Bible)
A Veil of Forgetfulness
A veil of forgetfulness is drawn over our memory of our pre-existence in order to live by faith.
Wordsworth wrote, “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God.” (Ode, Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of early Childhood, verses 58, 64-65)
Wanting to Go to Our Earthly Home
I read an interesting article by Audrey Simonson who lives in Arizona.
“While my husband and I were eating lunch at a local sandwich shop, a man walked in looking disheveled, lost, and confused. When he walked toward our table, I was surprised he didn’t ask for money. He only asked for directions to Flagstaff, Arizona. My husband and I gave him directions. He thanked us and left.
After lunch we started for home. Soon I saw the man walking toward a gas station. I had a strong impression to help him and asked my husband to pull into the gas station. I found the man and introduced myself. He had sad and tired eyes. His face seemed etched with deep lines from a hard life.
I asked how he planned to get to Flagstaff. He said he was going to walk. I knew that would be impossible since Flagstaff was more than 120 miles (193 km) away. I gave him some money and told him he could go to a nearby fast food restaurant to get some food and that I would return to take him to the bus depot and buy him a ticket to Flagstaff.
I returned to the truck and told my husband what had happened. Because of his health issues, I called a friend and asked her to go back with me. She agreed. We gathered some supplies, food, and water. Then we drove to the restaurant and picked the man up.
As we headed to the bus depot, this poor man began repeating, “I want to go home.” I asked if Flagstaff was his home. It wasn’t, but his daughter, whom he hadn’t spoken to for several years, lived there. He explained that he had been released from prison two weeks earlier. He and another released prisoner had been dropped off at the bus depot and each given a ticket. The other prisoner had stolen his ticket and what little money he had. He had been wandering the streets since. Nobody would help him. “I want to go home,” he said again.
We arrived at the bus depot. I purchased his ticket and gave him some money and the supplies we had gathered. He thanked us and sat down. As we drove away, this man’s words repeated in my mind: “I want to go home.”
Isn’t that what we all want? We are all absent from the loving home we left when we came to earth. We can all lose our way, so Jesus Christ showed us the path to follow and, through His atoning sacrifice, paid the ultimate price for our sins. Just as this man couldn’t return home on his own, neither can we return to our heavenly home without our Savior.”
The Marvelous Plan of Salvation
As we learn about the marvelous “Plan of Salvation” that Heavenly Father has for His sons and daughters who keep the Savior’s commandments, we begin in a small way to understand what the Lord meant by the following: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” (1 Corinthians 2: 9 in the Bible). We all should want to return to our Heavenly Home as righteous as we can be.
Dallas Jones is the local leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The quoted article came from Audrey Simonson, February 2020 in the Ensign. For further discussion call (231) 383-8359 or send an email to [email protected].