The Dawning of A Brighter Day

Today in Sacrament meeting the theme was the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood. The deacon's quorum president spoke, the teacher's quorum president spoke, and then a brother who is the deacon's quorum advisor spoke. He gave an awesome talk, using an analogy that was inspired by the weekend campout that the men and boys of the ward attended. It is the regular Aaronic Priesthood Campout/Guys FunTime that most wards have around the anniversary each year.

Our ward went out to the Valley of Fire to camp. This area is far enough away from Las Vegas that the night sky is very dark and you can see every star. The man started his talk by saying that they'd had a really pleasant evening on Friday, dinner round the campfire and good times. He has four boys and they are "all boy" so he had his hands full. But he is a capable dad, and I'm sure his wife was relieved to have a quiet evening at home. He told us that at 4:00 A.M. he was awakened by the 3 year old and after he got him settled back down, Dad almost went back to bed, but felt inspired instead to stay up.

This is where the talk got very good. He told us about watching the sleeping camp and realizing that the world was such an interesting place in this time of day. The desert may look barren and sterile but in fact is filled with life. As the sky began to make its subtle changes from night to dawn, he realized that he could feel and hear nature stirring. Birds began to chirp, bats came out and flew wildly about, swooping over the heads of a group of teens asleep in the back of a truck, snatching bugs from the air right over their noses. He could feel the breeze move across the earth and actually hear plants move. The sky began to lighten even more, yet stars were still visible even up to the moment the sun finally came up. It was gradual and subtle, yet inexorable. He felt so thrilled to have watched it all.

Then he matched it all in a great analogy to the restoration of the Aaronic priesthood. He read from the hymn "The Morning Breaks" a line about "Angels from heaven and truth from earth have met and both have record borne; thus Zion's light is bursting forth..." Moroni came and retrieved the Book of Mormon from where he'd buried it in the ground. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were translating it when they read about baptism and went to inquire of the Lord whether they should be baptized and where could they get the authority to do so. It reminded this brother about how the light of dawn came on gradually. It wasn't dark one minute and bright sun the next---things changed over time. Joseph Smith didn't get everything restored in one step.

He related the stirring of life in the early dawn hours to the atmosphere of the time in the United States, where religious fervor was stirring and there was a political system that permitted choice of religion. He compared the bats' swooping to the ministers of the time who'd rush in and snatch up a disaffected member from one sect to join with a new one. He compared the fact that you could still see stars in the dawn's light to the truths that were out there, but when the sun [the Son] comes out in its full glory, only it is ultimately visible, providing illumination that eclipses all other sources of light, including any puny attempt that mankind has invented.

Anyway, I hope you get the idea. It was a terrifically well-done talk. He really did a superb job of tying everything together without stretching or distorting his analogy. I was really impressed! He had set it up so well, and then fulfilled it so completely. It was an excellent sermon. I talked to him afterward and encouraged him to write it all down and send it off to the church magazines. They'll take it and print it. It was really fine.

Anyway, that was my Sunday lesson. Then I went to Primary and was treated to a great sharing time, done by a skilled woman who has a knack for explaining gospel principles to little kids. She teaches high school, but she is good once a week with wee ones. Fine day....