God’s Giant First Aid Kit (1 Nephi 9:6)

“But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works…for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen.” (1 Nephi 9:6)

I love it when the Book of Mormon reminds us that the Lord knows all and can do all, provide all. In this case, He’s providing a replacement for the parts of the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith will lose thousands of years later. If He can do that, He can certainly orchestrate all the little ups and downs of my life.

Some people believe that God only intervenes in these big things—things that will affect large groups of people or that will alter the course of history. And the little things that ‘seem’ to show the Lord’s hand working in our daily lives, the little miracles we ascribe to Him, are merely coincidence.

I just can’t believe that. That smacks of deism—the philosophy that God created the world, set it in motion and then just sat back to watch it all play out. That has no place in LDS theology. If that were true, why would God have us pray over all the things in our lives?

“Cry unto him…over all your flocks…your household…your enemies…crops…fields… (Alma 34:18-27)

“Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good.” (Alma 37:37)

(Notice the word “all”?)

Only a cruel and heartless being would tell us to pray, knowing full well it would have no effect. Only a bully says to beg for mercy while never intending to bestow it. I cannot believe that God is a cruel and heartless bully.

God is active in our lives. He tells us to pray so that He can bless us.

We may not know why God asks us to do certain things that seem meaningless to us, but we do them because we trust that He sees a bigger picture than we do. We trust that He holds the entire plan in His mind, while we can only grasp our little portion of it.

This trust is also the answer to the harder question: If God is all powerful and merciful, how can He allow bad things to happen? How can He allow evil acts that harm the innocent, handicaps, illness, death?

I don’t know. I don’t even presume to guess. But this is what I do know. God is kind and benevolent. He is omniscient and all powerful. Therefore, I have to trust that the terrible things of this world happen for reasons that are just beyond the scope of my mortal vision and comprehension.

I also know that when terrible things happen in our lives, God does not just sit back and watch us struggle through our ‘learning experience.’ He doesn’t say, “I know it hurts right now, but you’ll thank me for it later.”

God is right there in the trenches of pain and heartache with us, holding a huge First Aid Kit filled with bandages, salve and spiritual pain killers. But the kit it locked and we are the ones holding the key. We have to turn to the Lord, pray the ‘magic words’ of repentance and faith and humility, and then the kit pops open and the healing spills out and upon us. Until we provide the key of faith, all God can do is stand there, holding the kit, trying to get our attention.