Hank Smith: 00:03 Hello, my friends. Welcome to followHIM Favorites. John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s lesson. John, we’re in Alma 30 and 31, the stories of Korihor and the Zoramites.

John Bytheway: 00:14 Yes.

Hank Smith: 00:15 The anti-Christs of the Book of Mormon. You’ve told me you have a story for this section, so we’re going to turn it over to you.

John Bytheway: 00:24 I really love how Alma switches things up on Korihor and says, “What’s your evidence that there is no God? Show me your evidence.” And then he says, “I have my own testimony, the testimony of my brethren, the testimony of the prophets, the testimony of the Scriptures.” And then there’s this line in Alma 30:44, “All things denote there is a God; the Earth, all things that are upon the face of it and its motion, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.” And Hank, a long time ago, my parents gave me a book. I was 13, and it was called Goals. And there’s a little story in there which had a big impact on me about looking up at those stars. This is the story.

  01:07 One well-remembered day several years ago, I stood knee-deep in the Virgin River and looked up in awe at the 1,000-foot rock cliffs of Zion’s Park on either side. The Park Service brochure said the rocks were more than 200 million years old. I compared my age to the age of the rocks and felt very young and very unimportant. It got dark early in the narrow canyon. By late afternoon, I could see stars in the narrow slice of sky above. I recalled reading that scientists had discovered seven times 10 to the 13th power stars. The article went on to dramatize the magnitude of that number by saying, “If there were seven times 10 to the 13th power playing cards pressed together face-to-face.” Okay, so 52 cards is a normal deck of cards, like that. “If there were seven times 10 to the 13th power playing cards, the line they form would go around the world 600 times.”

Hank Smith: 02:05 Oh my word.

John Bytheway: 02:06 I thought to myself, “I am one tiny speck on one tiny world going around one of those seven times 10 to the 13th power stars. How small and totally insignificant I am.” And that’s the end of the story. No, I’m just kidding. Then he continues, that night as I unrolled my sleeping bag, a thought hit me with great impact, “I am older than the rocks, for my spirit is eternal. I am more important than all seven times 10 to the 13th power stars, because I am God’s son and they are only his handiwork.”

Hank Smith: 02:45 That is beautiful. That’s a moment.

John Bytheway: 02:49 And I like camping because I’m in Salt Lake City, and the lights… I don’t see the stars. But when I can get up in the mountains and I see those stars, it’s really hard for me not to think about God and the universe and everything when you see a display like that. And maybe that’s what Alma was saying, “Look, look at that. There’s evidence that there’s a God. Look at that up there.”

Hank Smith: 03:09 There’s a reason at Young Men’s Camp or Young Women’s Camp that we tend to be more spiritual, that we get out there and we look at the vastness of creation and we start to… Yeah, it’s like Moses. Wow.

John Bytheway: 03:24 I’ve wondered, Hank, if that’s what happened to Enos. He went hunting. He was out in the wilderness, lost all interest in hunting, started thinking about God because he was out in the beautiful nature.

Hank Smith: 03:35 Yeah, which is probably where he lived as well, but.

John Bytheway: 03:38 Yeah, that’s true.

Hank Smith: 03:40 Enos is like, “I got to get out of the city.”

John Bytheway: 03:43 Once you’ve got your steak, then yeah.

Hank Smith: 03:46 You’re like, “The campfires are just too bright. Can’t see the stars.” John, that’s a great moment. That had an impact on me, just thinking that, “Wait, I am older.”

John Bytheway: 03:58 I’m older than the rocks. My spirit is eternal. I am more important than all the seven times 10 to the 13th power stars. I am God’s son. “I’m a beloved son of God, and he has a work for me to do,” the young men say every week. Right?

Hank Smith: 04:14 Yeah, that is wonderful.

John Bytheway: 04:15 Or I’m a beloved daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature and eternal destiny. Yes, that’s it.

Hank Smith: 04:20 The heavens and the earth shall pass away. My word shall not pass away.

  04:26 We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. It’s called followHIM. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We’re with Dr. Brent Top this week. He’s been away on some missions, so we haven’t had him on the podcast in a while, and he is really fun. So come over and join us there, and then come back next week, we’ll do another followHIM Favorites.