In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord uses the phrase “innumerable as the stars” (D&C 132:30). Two nights ago, my husband Josh and I just caught just a small glimpse of what that means.
We were fortunate to go on a stargazing and telescope tour near Bryce Canyon National Park, which has some of the darkest skies in the world. Far away from the light pollution of cities, the stars were astounding! Our favorite view of the night was actually without a telescope; we found ourselves constantly gazing upward, transfixed as we soaked in the wide expanse of the brilliant night sky. We didn’t know that so many stars did exist or even could exist in our night sky!
As we stood in bitter cold that late night, shuffling to keep our toes warm and craning our necks towards the obsidian sky, it struck me that there is a great spiritual lesson in stargazing: the further one goes from the (light) pollution of the world, the clearer we can see the heavens.
Those spectacular stars were already there-it just took deliberate work on our part to get to a place where we could see their transcendent beauty.
As it is in stargazing, so it is in life. It takes deliberate effort and work to leave the world behind in order to expand our vision. The ancients like Nephi and Moses climbed mountains in order to view the visions of eternity. In order to do so, they prepared, worked, and moved forward-sacrificing the comfort and ease at the base of their respective mountains.
In our day, we too must learn to journey-whether it be to the temple, to Sacrament Meeting, or to a quiet place where we can study, meditate and pray. We need not climb a physical mountain to distance ourselves from our phones, or distractions and noise.
Wonderfully, moving even small distances away from the world can help us see more clearly, and at times even glimpse the Lord’s panorama and the vastness of His creations.
What can you do to more regularly distance yourself from the world? Act upon your impressions and see what happens.
