Lehi’s Dream – Love of God

Lehi’s Dream – the vision of the tree of life – has many marvelous meanings and analogies behind it. It is one of the first main gospel ‘teachings’ in the Book of Mormon and highlights really just what the Book of Mormon is for – to bring others to the knowledge of Christ and, eventually, the true love of God. We see this in the vision described by Lehi in 1 Nephi 8 and explained later to Nephi in 1 Nephi 11.

If we look at the vision in terms of missionary work – we see a good description of the emotions and efforts of the work placed before us.

At the beginning, Lehi finds himself at this tree of life. He tastes the fruit and says “I beheld that it was most sweet, above all that I ever before tasted…And as I partook of the fruit thereof it filled my soul with exceedingly great joy…” (1 Nephi 8:11-12). Thus we see that this fruit was very delicious to the taste and it made Lehi feel great. This fruit can be related to as the love of God – the abundant blessings that we receive from our loving Father’s hand – in particular eternal life, living in the presence of Him and our families together forever.

As such, if we want to dwell with our families forever, they need to qualify as well. So Lehi continues “I cast my eyes round about, that perhaps I might discover my family also…” (1 Nephi 8:13) – he immediately looked for his family to taste of what he just had. He wanted to share it with them so that they could have the joy that he had – just as we should be with the Gospel in our lives.

What is also interesting is the way that people would make it to the tree/eternal life. In order to reach the tree, people had to “press their way forward, continually holding fast to the rod of iron, until they came forth and fell down and partook of the fruit of the tree.” (1 Nephi 18:30). This links into what we need to do to receive all the blessings of the Atonement. Grasping to the rod could represent holding to the gospel covenants. As such, commitments and covenants help us move closer and closer to the eventual goal of celestial glory. An interesting point is that the people had to hold to the rod right until they reached the tree – and hold on tight. Due to the mists of darkness (temptations of Satan), if they didn’t hold fast they would be lost – if they didn’t endure to the end then they wouldn’t reach he blessing of eternal life.

Sister Okazaki – Prejudice or Peace: An Example of Cultural Unity

I recently studied an article about a talk by Sister Chieko N Okazaki in the April 2018 Ensign. I was impressed whilst reading the short bio of Sister Okazaki at the start of the article. You can read it at this link or the bio is just below:

“Chieko Nishimura Okazaki (1926-2011) grew up in Hawaii, USA, in a Buddhist family of Japanese ancestry. She joined the Church when she was 15.

By then, Sister Okazaki had come to acknowledge the complexity of her ethnic and  cultural status. Worried about how others would perceive them after the Japanese  military bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Sister Okazaki and her mother gathered and  burned every Japanese memento they owned. But then she looked in the mirror and  thought, “I have never set foot in Japan. I am not Japanese in my heart. But I cannot run away from myself. My eyes, my skin, and my hair are Japanese.”¹

Sister Okazaki confronted racism throughout her life. She began teaching soon after  World War II when anti-Japanese sentiment still ran high in the United States. Three mothers refused to allow  their children to be in her class. But Sister Okazaki soon won them over.

Sister Okazaki was the first woman to serve on all three of the women’s auxiliary boards:   first Young Women, then Primary, then Relief Society.”

I am aware that this type of cultural prejudice is unfortunately as prevalant today as it has always been. You would think that as the world becomes smaller through new and improved systems of communication and a diversifying of many cultures this would not be the case. Sadly, there is still a lot of unwarranted hate in the world. You only even have to look at something as trivial as football fans to see this in action. One set of fans automatically go against other fans and hurl abuse simply because of the team they support. Were they to meet each other in other settings they may have struck a wonderful friendship up. Yet, it is their categorisation of ‘those fans and that club’ that instantly have them make a judgement about those individuals.

The harrowing thing about cultural prejudice is that, unlike football teams and fans, culture and race cannot be ‘chosen’. We are born with it. As such, if someone is prejudiced against someone else for their race or culture, they are making judgement on that person just because of the way they were born – not on ANY of the choices that person has made! This is clear to see in the example of Sister Okazaki. The sorrow she must have felt when treated in this way because, simply, she looked different must have felt bad. She even said she did not ‘feel’ Japanese, but the way she looked made the difference.

She shared a wonderful talk about this cultural difference and the Gospel. She said:

“The basket and the bottle are different containers, but the content is the same: fruit for a family. Is the bottle right and the basket wrong?No, they are both right. They are containers appropriate to the culture and the needs of  the people. And they are both appropriate for the content they carry, which is the fruit…

Brothers and sisters, whether your fruits are peaches or papaya, and whether you bring  them in bottles or in baskets, we thank you for offering them in love.”

It does not matter what we look like, but what we live like. Obviously, this is something that as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we would believe as we believe we are all children of our loving Heavenly Father, no matter the colour of our skin. However, this talk – along with the context of Sister Okazaki’s life-experience – was an eye-opener. I fall victim to making judgements about others and I wish to work on that.