Thoughts about life and life

The TED series of talks and presentations has produced some absolutely brilliant and enlightening experiences.  Check them out at TED.com.  But today I am fascinated by this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=fKyljukBE70

Life is such a wonderful mystery.  Just this week I have seen the miracle at both ends of what we call mortality.  We have a new grandchild on the way.  Tom and Lindsay have announced that a baby is due to be born on 1-3-13.  Hows that for a birthday!  This TED presentation shows some amazing photography of the development of the fetus from conception to birth.  The guy doing the presentation is a mathematician.  He makes a comment a couple of times that the process goes beyond anything he can express mathematically.  In March I mentioned an article that demonstrated the preposterously small chance of getting all the games of the NCAA tournament correct by a flip of a coin.  That was with only 64 variables.  Here is a human body, infinitely more complex than a two-way choice  (heads or tails) using 64 variables.  What a wonderful expression of God's love for us, His children.

The other end of this mortal experience came vividly to my mind this week as our neighbor and good friend, David Long, suddenly had a ruptured aortic aneurism and he was gone.  Suddenly changed from vibrant and healthy and interacting with his lovely family to an empty body being prepared to be put into the ground.  But that is not where Dave is.  I believe with all my heart and soul that he is just as alive now as he was last week.  He is now in the animated form of his spirit, which must surely look quite like the physical body.  He can think and talk and move and express feelings and be concerned for his sweet wife and five great kids who had to stay behind.  He will be put to work immediately, for there is surely a lot of work there that needs to be done.  He and all of us will prepare and wait for the resurrection, when we are called out of the grave into another dimension of life that will leave this one in the dark.

My belief in the resurrection is what keeps me sane.  There are numerous scriptural references to the what and when of that event, but the how is sort of left unanswered.  Finding out the answer to that one will be an experience I cannot now comprehend.  But we will all find out.  That thought gives more impetus to the importance of this phase of mortality.  Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, "In our eternal journey, the resurrection is the mighty milepost that signifies the end of mortality and the beginning of immortality."   (lds.org/general-conference/2000/04/resurrection?lang=eng)  It marks the boundary between mortality and immortality.  It gives us something to aim for and hope for and work for.  Without the resurrection this life on Earth just does not make much sense.

So watch the TED presentation and spend some time contemplating the purpose of life.  We are not here by randomness.  We have a divine beginning and an eternal destiny.

That's all for how.