Sunday, December 11, 2011

a few of my favorite things

i was the narrator for the ward Christmas program today. when i came to the end of reading "and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," it was all i could do to not conclude with, "and that's what Christmas is all about, charlie brown."

with the blessing of the sunday school president, i skipped ahead a few lessons today and taught from revelation, since seven-headed dragons are cool. when we were talking about the opening of the seven seals, i really wanted to make some bergman reference but, without an established movie night here, no one would have appreciated the joke.
as i was thinking about how the opening of the seals can mean something to us in our own lives, i thought of how, just as we can find comfort in the craziness of the world around us by knowing that, after the seventh seal has been opened, that everything will work out, perhaps there are seals in our own lives. and that if it seems that horsemen of disappointment or broken dream have been given power to run rampant in our own lives, we can remember that their bounds, too, are set, and that there are still more seals to be opened. only after the seventh seal of our own lives has been opened will all be made right and the promised blessings secured. alma 37:16-17

in elder's quorum we were talking about the importance of learning and gaining an education and at one point read from d&c 88:78-80, where the Lord commands the saints to study many different things, essentially encompassing all of academia.
i've always noticed that the arts are not really mentioned in that list and, as i was thinking about that again today, i thought of alma 30:44, where alma cites the marvel of creation all around us as a sign that there is a God. not only is God the ultimate scientist, but, as artists spend so much of their effort to capture the beauty of a sunset, a mountain, to mimic the way a cat moves, is it apparent that God is also the ultimate artist.
or, as we used to say on set, God is the best gaffer.

2 comments:

LJ said...

Put that on a t-shirt and I'd totally wear it. God is the best gaffer.

Em said...

I can understand passing on the Bergman reference, but Charlie Brown? Everyone would have appreciated that.