I met the God of the Birds when I was a young electronics student. I walked 5 km every day to my study center, La Universidad Laboral. Living on the outskirts of Seville, I crossed cultivated and abandoned fields. Sometimes it was dark, raining or cold and others the air was spring and warm. It was not a question of money or lack of transport but a hobby of adventure to the sensations of the open air and nature.
January 27, 1978
On January 24, 1978, I was 17 years old at the time, I left at 7:00 in the morning for class, I went ahead of my usual schedule and not wanting to be alone in class before my time, I sat down on a small hillside where there was a plain covered with herbs and wildflowers. Making time, I observed the surroundings and the clear morning sky.
Suddenly I began to notice a strange and new sensation that was increasing by the moment. It seemed that everything around me was alive and had its being. And now I risk appearing to be in an exalted mood, but I remember perfectly that the plants, the flowers, the sky were happy and communicated it spontaneously. There was a communion with my surroundings that I cannot describe. It was not an experience of disordered feelings, it was a new perception, very clear and contrasted with what is normal.
In my diary I recorded the following
«I felt in harmony with the countryside. I felt love for the flowers, the grass, the sky… I have the desire to feel tomorrow morning the same beautiful experience of this morning.«
A few minutes later I woke up astonished and looking forward to returning the next day. So I did and sat down again. But I never experienced the same thing.
Since then
I know this kind of experience is hard to share with someone who hasn’t lived it. But after that day I began to suspect that things aren’t just what they seem.
Far from that day, many times I return to a non-agricultural Western way of feeling, yes, that feeling of superiority typical of this digital generation, far from the fields that look at the past with self-sufficiency, thus participating in the extortion of the Earth «…for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion….». (D&C 59:20) Yes, in truth, I sometimes neglect myself and again underestimate «all things for them which were expedient for man to receive» (1 Nephi 17:30) and I begin to consider it routine. Then I cease to like the simple things «yes, the grass and the good things that the earth produces, whether for food, or for clothing, or for houses, or for storehouses, or for orchards, or for gardens, or for vineyards;» (1 Nephi 17:30). (D&C 59:20) And I begin to think with carelessness and irreverence, that those basic things, which the earth produces, are not mine to receive, but when I can buy them, they are due to me.
In this way, without realizing it, I turn a filial relationship with a mother into a merchant by considering her a mere supplier. It is not altogether strange that she complained to God, «Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children» (Moses 7:48)
The God of the little birds
That day in January of ’78, it made me think a lot. Sometimes when it was threatening rain, I would get dressed with my sport opa and go to my usual route, about 15 km. Those days of dark skies, lightning and rain, I especially enjoyed. You can call me a romantic spirit, and I really was a romantic in the landscape sense of the word. I watched the sky and wondered what value it had if nobody looked at it. When the rain fell in sterile and unprofitable places, I wondered how many places it occurred without observers. So would it be real if it wasn’t seen?
Those questions with the time, made me see that I considered the creation a work represented only for our vision and enjoyment since the writing says of us «Let them have dominionover the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl of the air…». (Moses 2:26) and yet by moderating dominion with other words such as judgment, not in excess, nor by extortion the result is an opportunity, not so much to lead, but to participate with our voice in the magnificent chorus of His creatures.
The God of desolate places
In the book of Job I find this same idea when it says, «To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man. To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?» (Job 38:26-27)
As he sensed, he is also God of the desolate places and of the solitary grass, of the clouds never seen by anyone, of the rain that falls in solitude and also of the little birds in which no one notices when they fall to the ground. He who counts them and feeds them, that «glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands» (D&C 76:43).
It’s in the Sun and it’s the light of the Sun
Sometimes I visited my grandfather Manuél, a veteran of the Al Hoceima campaign. I had fun with him, asking him dilemmas. One of them was where the heat of the sun came from. He, having been in the ships of transport responded with rotundity, of the coal. I rebelled against him, but grandfather, where is so much coal going to come from? then he looked at me surprised and gesticulated. Well, where is it going to be from the mountains of coal, he replied. We both laughed. He was an easy laugh.
When we read that the light that shines is Christ «he is also in the sun, and it is the light of the sun» we can think that it refers to the light of the sun that we see entering through our window. And it’s true, but it’s not just that, it’s something else.
In the 1950s it was not known how carbon was produced in the stars. In this step comes into play Beryllium (Be). The reaction to form carbon takes place when two nuclei of an isotope of Helium join and one of Beryllium is formed, and to this it is necessary to add another nucleus of Helium to form at last one of carbon. To see this more graphically, I represent it next. I do it in a language similar to the scriptures, because they also testify to the brightness.
The other scriptures
4He + 4He ↔ 8Be
8Be + 4He ↔ 12C + γ + 7,367 MeV
The problem is that the beryllium nucleus (8Be) is very unstable and has a very short life span (10e-17 seconds) which makes it impossible to explain the abundance of carbon in nature, those bricks fundamental to life. the difficulty of this reaction is similar to placing three people in the corners of a room blindfolded. And ask them to throw tennis balls into the middle of the room. The likelihood of all three balls hitting at the same time is very low.
In 1953 astronomer Fred Hoyle predicted that carbon should have an energy level of 7.65 mega-electron-volts. The prediction was based on the need for this. In other words, the fact that we exist requires that the laws must be what they are, otherwise we would not be here. Fred Hoyle predicted that Carbon should have a «preference» or resonance with the energy they had 8Be+4He. Later William Fowler demonstrated in the laboratory that they coincide exactly in those values, which allows the creation of carbon on a large scale.
Carbon Mountains
The mountains of coal that my grandfather imagined in the Sun were true but their objective was not to warm us, but to create us. Carbon is the mud of the earth that the Gods used to create us.
«This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made.» (DyC 88:7)
When Alma tells us «yea, and all things denote there is a God» (Alma 30:44) we should look that way, because there are, and when he ends up saying «they testify that there is a Supreme Creator» we should understand that the creations do not demonstrate, but testify. That reality proves nothing about the light that shines, but does testify of it. Is it not a way of testifying from the center of a star, the «complicity» necessary between three atoms to create carbon?
The light that shines speaks to us through the testimony of things. The Lord wants us to be enlightened by His light. We do not find His light by scientific methods, but rather by juridical ones. The evidences and testimonies being the elements that usually participate in our sentence on the facts.
The gentle power
I consider that these impressions of the soul are produced by the brightness of the Earth, because it does not hide its light under a bushel, but «giveth light unto all that are in the house» (Matthew 5:15).
The light that shines is the light of Christ. (D&C 88:11) «And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings»
The former, that mysterious primeval light of which the scriptures speak, is amplified and modulated by Christ. Without it we would not understand the world, it would be chaotic and confusing.
Between us and light and truth there is a distance, an inequality, an incompatibility to relate. Light and truth is a raw material foreign to our constitution and abilities. We cannot extract it with our hands, we cannot perceive it, assimilate it or elaborate anything with it. We start from different constitutions, we are strangers to their eyes, there is no mooring in their port for any ship we crew. It is an entity but it is not personal as we understand it in our way of thinking. It does not admit errors, nor exceptions, merciless, impersonal but conscious.
No one can manipulate her «because she discards that iniquitous one» however «part of the presence of God to fill the immensity of space» She already existed before the heavenly families and is an ally in Elohim’s house.
The creation model
And yet, in spite of our divergence with her, we came out of her waters. When we read in the scriptures, «And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.» (Genesis 1:20) We are seeing the pattern of creation. For those waters, too, are the waters or the ocean of intelligence or light and truth that was neither created nor made, the raw material of our spirit. We came out of their inner orphans and nameless and were called by the powerful covenants and ordinances of our house, «Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest.» (D&C 84:20)
Those ordinances exposed before the light and the truth do not suppose for her shackles nor are they a staff of command. «No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned» (D&C 121:41)
Persuade and move
Faced with this imposing, intelligent and luminous darkness of the «waters» of light and truth, one day our parents faced each other. It was the same dark ocean from other lineages, the same challenge of bringing immortality and eternal life into every corner.
They were also fishers of men, but of nameless men, dissolved in dark waters. I imagine them young, impressed when they saw for the first time this intelligent ocean, hopeful, accompanied by their agreements with their credentials, their genealogy, their priesthood. And the great expansion came about in his exaltation, his priesthood and ordinances were empowered by becoming «and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto [them] forever and ever.»(D&C 121:46).
From that distant moment the firstborn of our family, Jehovah, drank from the fountain of his Father’s hands, he was in his bosom and lived familiar with the landscapes around his power. The honor of the Father, which by covenant was justified in light and truth, was incarnated in Jehovah, who as a beacon of truth grew and formed on the same shore. We can read in D&C 84:45 «For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ….» by saying the word of the Lord is truth, it means that he is obedient to the truth, his word is his integrity, being obedient to the truth.
The preposition until
We read it in 3 Nephi 11:11 «…the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning….» and by this obedience, he tells us today how that process of accumulation was like «[he received] truth and light unto [being] glorified in truth» (D&C 93:28).
«…he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness;» (D&C 93:13)
In these two verses there is a very important preposition, even. The function of this preposition is to indicate the destiny of the previous words, these are the truth and light that he received. And that destiny are two different things. On the one hand a level (fullness) and on the other a state (glorified) Or what is the same, for us sailors in the tempest, the beacon, to all intents and purposes, is the light.
The light that exists in all things
My grandmother Mary was always with the fruits of the earth. Legumes, vegetables, tomatoes with their reds and peppers with their greens. Oranges that wet my eyes when I peeled them. When I came home I was happy, she knew what I liked, the scattered spinach. Washed and boiled, she drained them and cut them with her trembling hands, while in the fire garlic was fried in slices and bread. She poured them when they were golden and added the ground pepper and a little vinegar. That was one of his creations, with its light shining. I shut up and watched, while she laughed.
Without knowing it, she fulfilled the commandment, «Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;» (D&C 59:18)
As Saint Teresa used to say, «the Lord also walks among the fires».
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