Cleave

I have been reading but not blogging.  I apologize.  I might make several posts in the same day, but that doesn't mean anyone should feel obligated to read them all.  Remember, my first priority is to document my own thoughts about what I study so that I actually learn something and so that I don't forget what I learn.  I don't expect you to read everything, whoever it is that you are.

D&C 88 talks about the varying degrees of kingdoms and such, but when I read verses 44-45, I thought of it in a little different way than I think most people have thought of it.

"And they give light to each other in their times and in their seasons, in their minutes, in their hours, in their days..."(44). "The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God"(45).

Okay, so here's what I thought about this passage regarding the cosmos:

The "They" in verse 44 represents us, God's children, and the "light" we give to each other is our service, our friendship and love, the gospel...you know, all that good wholesome stuff that light represents.  So 44 says that we brighten each other at various times throughout our lives.  In 45, it says all of us (we are the earth, sun, moon, stars) are going about our lives (the rolling of the earth is the turning of the earth, and that's what the earth does, it turns.  what we do is live our lives), and as we go about our lives, we give light at different points of time for each other.

Or another way to interpret it along the same lines: the earth doesn't really shine, so imagine you are the earth, and there are all these different factors of the gospel that are continually present, but for some reason, specific parts of the gospel seem to shine brighter at certain points in your life.

Either way, I think there's more to these scriptures than just the shallow interpretation that the sun, moon, and stars shine at different times.  I see a lot of symbolism there regarding the light we give and receive.  I'm sure there's even more, but I don't want to make this any longer.

Choose to Cleave.
*Read my first post, "Preface," for more information about Cleaving