The Master Plan

I heard this story told to me and realized that it might apply to my situation so much.


The Teacher was gathered together with his disciples one morning, when a man came up to him.


‘Does God exist?’ he asked.


‘He does,’ replied the Teacher.


After lunch, another man came up to him.


‘Does God exist?’ he asked.


‘No, he doesn’t,’ said the Teacher.


Later that afternoon, a third man asked the same question: ‘Does God exist?’


‘That’s for you to decide,’ replied the Teacher.


As soon as the man had gone, one of his disciples remarked angrily:


‘But that’s absurd, Master! How can you possibly give such different answers to the same question?’


‘Because they are all different people, and each one of them will reach God by his own path. The first man will believe what I say. The second will do everything he can to prove me wrong. The third will only believe in what he is allowed to choose for himself.’

I do not know why the Lord has given me the Spiritual experience that he has. I just know that he has and that D&C 122:6&7 tells me that even “if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters … all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” I know that if I follow this prompting and keep my eye single to the Lord then everything will work out.

I am reminded about an interpretation from Scriptorian and LDS scholar Brother Wilcox who told me the following. Satan was not essential to the plan of the Father, How could it be that the ultimate plan required the falling away of 1/3 of HIS children. Many people think that Satan has the power to disrupt the plan of the Father, but we know how the story ends. It ends with the people of the Lord conquering Satan in a civil war, where brother fights brother. Satan was not necessary to tempt Eve and get her to leave the Garden. Satan’s actions however disrupting he thinks they might be, have time and time again, only played into the hands of the LORD. Having Eve eat the fruit might not have been the ideal way that the LORD wanted Adam and Eve to leave the Garden, but he did intend for them to leave the Garden. Satan misinterpreted the hierarchy of the contradictory commandments and thought that eating of the Fruit would be a worse sin than to stay in the garden. However, this attempt to disrupt the plan of the Father only played into the Fathers hands. I believe that the LORD has ultimate power and understands the intrinsic individual weavings of our own personal threads and how they form a greater picture than we can imagine. I have faith in the Lord that in the end, just as our actions can do nothing to reverse the flow of the Nile, our actions will not affect HIS great plan both for the whole and for us individually. I have faith that the LORD will provide a way for his children as long as they have their eyes turned towards him!