Rescued

I'm back in Texas after a prolonged and enjoyable holiday season.  It was hard to come back after so much time at home with my loved ones, but it is good for me to get back to working on the dissertation.  I'm hoping to write between 2 and 3 chapters this semester, which would be a wonderful thing and would give me a significant start on my project.  I also have to admit that today's high temperature of 75 degrees is fairly nice for the middle of January.

The First Vision

Today in Sunday School I taught a lesson on what we can learn from the scriptures about our Father in Heaven--a topic that probably deserves far more emphasis than a single lesson and a week of study for said lesson.  As I was preparing the lesson, it occurred to me that I needed to spend some time teaching about the most clear, and, for me, moving instance of his appearance to fallen man in the scriptures:  namely, the First Vision.

Traditionally when we talk about what the First Vision teaches us about the Godhead, we emphasize the separate and distinct nature of each member of the Godhead, and the idea that the Father has a body of flesh and bones like the Son.  But as I was preparing this lesson a couple of other things stood out to me about the Father.

The familiar 1838 account of the First Vision reads this way:  "After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God.  I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak.  Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.  But exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction . . . just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.  It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound.  When the light rested upon me, I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air.  One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other--This is My Beloved Son.  Hear Him!"  (JS-H 1:15-17)

As I read this account in preparation for my lesson, I was moved by the account of the Prophet's rescue in this moment of profound need.  Because of the Fall, rescue usually comes in the form of the Son, but in this instance it came in the form of the Father and the Son.  The 1835 account of the First Vision notes that after he had been delivered, the Prophet again "called on the Lord in mighty prayer" and "a pillar of fire appeared above my head, it presently rested down upon me and filled me with joy unspeakable, a personage appeared in the midst, of this pillar a flame which was spread all around, and yet nothing consumed, another personage soon appeard like unto the first, he said unto me thy sins are forgiven thee, he testified unto me that Jesus Christ is the son of God and I saw many angels in this vision" (Joseph Smith, journal, November 11, 1835, Joseph Smith Papers website).

Whether it was the Father or the Son who appeared first is unclear, but the presence and attendant glory of both of these members of the Godhead delivered the boy Prophet in this time of need.  As I considered this truth, that the Father's appearing had rescued this son, I became even more convinced that He is in reality our Father.  Like any good Father, He will rescue his children whenever we find ourselves in danger.  As we call on His name in faith, He will send help, He will send deliverance, He rescue us from the dangers of this world.

I am grateful for the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God.  He has been there for me in every moment when I have needed His help.  I hope that the young men and young women in my Sunday School class will know and believe this sacred truth.

Brett