Object Lessons

There is not much of a warning before the huge drop of Mesa Falls.  The water goes a bit faster as it tips towards the edge, but until you are right on the brink, there is no way to tell how deep and far it really is.   By then, it is much too late to do anything.

There is a tree that is right on the falls that has amazed me for several seasons.  I like to go back every year and make sure it's still there.  I always expect that the water will have carried it away.

This time I noticed that the tree is growing out of a rock.  It's roots are sunk deeply into the rock and there is no way to erode the tree's foundation.

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that is is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

Helaman 5:12

 

But spiritually, If you were carried downstream by the water, and didn't heed the warning signs, and were swept over the falls all is still not lost.  Alma teaches in the book of Mormon that the Lord, through the Atonement, can snatch us from destruction if we repent.

I love the word snatch and imagine a person being swept over the falls with nothing to save him from the sharp rocks and destruction at the bottom.  And then to have the Lord reach out and snatch him and put him on safe ground again.

Nature is full of great object lessons.