Random Thought #23

I read a small article today that got me thinking. Have you ever noticed that the sun and the moon appear to be the same size? Granted its rather hard to measure these objects from where we stand, especially the sun since you can't really look directly at it, but for the most part they seem to be about the same size. How can that be considering the sun is millions of miles farther away from us than the moon is. The laws of physics would demand that the size of the sun be much smaller than the moon due to its distance from us. Interesting. Also, we know that stars come and go as they die and are born, but they are always there, why can we only see them at night? Why do they all appear to be about the same size when some are closer than others? How is it that we can even see them at all? They all seem so far away. We can't typically see more than 50-100 feet in front of us on a perfectly clear day, and yet we can see balls of fiery gases billions of light years away. Interesting. This all of course relates to relativity. I wonder how these things look from God's perspective. I've been reading about ascension dramas (out of body experiences where individuals are taken up to get a tour of the cosmos). The Book of Abraham says multiple times that Abraham needs to remember that everything he is seeing is from the perspective of the earth that he dwells on. Time is a limitation that exists in our world, but that differs from time in other worlds, if its even measured.

Speaking of relativity, I think that is one of the biggest hurdles people have in reading and understanding the scriptures. Most of the scriptures are written from a time, culture, and perspective of the author. Many of the things apply to our day because we do things much in the same way they've been done since the time of Adam and we're meant to learn from these histories. That's what history is for, to learn from the experience of others. There are a number of prophecies, but these come from God (through prophets of God) and not from man. Ever try reading something in the Doctrine and Covenants and then read something similar in the Old Testament? Which one is easier to understand? D&C of course. It was written by a contemporary of ours (Joseph Smith; we're at least in the same dispensation and within 100-200 years) Even more, he was living in America and spoke and wrote in English. The people in the Old Testament lived in a completely different time period, location, and spoke a different language. They have a completely different perspective. Its no wonder that the Old Testament, not to mention New Testament and even Book of Mormon are so much more difficult to understand. If we truly want to understand what they are trying to teach us, we need to put ourselves in their shoes and try as best we can to look at things from their point of view. This could mean learning Hebrew, Egyptian, and exploring their cultures. Things make so much more sense when you are looking the same direction through the same piece of glass. I only hope that one day I can look from above through the same lens as Heavenly Father. Only then will I be able to understand the many mysteries of God.