We Are Not Alone

I grew up in a strong Latter Day Saint (LDS) home with good parents who did everything they could to teach me and my eight siblings right from wrong. Faith and a testimony of Jesus Christ was a fundamental goal for my parents as well as a good education. I was home-schooled for most of my childhood and didn’t enter public school until 9^th grade. During the time my mother taught me at home she made it a point to instil a good sense of faith as well as curiosity in everything we did. She made sure and let us know that questions were OK and that we should ask lots of them. Questions made us good thinkers and asking questions made us good learners. We learned from the Bible, the Book of Mormon and from a plethora of school curriculum that my mother ordered from companies, found at libraries, and other resources that she was able to glean and share with a home-school group we belonged to.

When she taught us from the scriptures she made point to teach us how the stories could relate to us in our everyday lives. When she taught us math she explained future ways that math would come in handy. But when it came to science, she had a different approach. She made it a point to tell us how things worked, where it came from but she also had an almost magical way of expressing how science worked WITH God. That science and Faith really couldn’t be separated no matter how much scientists wanted to break them apart. That yes, God made the flowers, but he didn’t just wave his hand and they appeared. He created these beautiful floras that they would reproduce on their own. God used science to create the world. That even God followed certain laws.

That idea was so incredible and has been so deeply ingrained in me that I personally find a much deeper appreciation for my Heavenly Father and Creator than I think I could otherwise.

My Dad worked hard to earn a living and allow my mother to stay home with their nine children and, let’s be honest, with nine kids, there’s no way my mom would ever be able to earn enough money outside the home to make the cost of childcare cost effective.

Dad would come home and he had his shows he liked to watch. Most dads do. I grew up watching and loving Star Trek, Dr. Who, Star Gate, and many other shows centering on space and the idea that we are not alone in the Universe.

As I grew and matured and entered my teenage years I suppressed and hid the fact that I liked those kind of shows, as I was embarrassed to be labeled a “geek”. But it remained my secret vice.

After I married a man who is a “Geek” through and through I’ve come to accept and be proud of my inner nerd and once again I find myself thinking back to the science/faith lessons my mom taught me as a child. I watch the new episodes of Dr. Who, re-watch old episodes of Star Trek and my husband and I enjoy a late night documentary on space every now and again once the littles are asleep. And once again, as I did a long time ago, I find myself asking questions and thinking new ideas and wanting to ask for answers.

Through this rediscovery of asking far off questions, and thinking about the wide open universe and its never ending vastness, my mind turns to God and the creations he made specifically for us. His Children.

We are taught, as LDS members, that this cycle of creation, spiritual birth, earthy birth, death, and resurrection has been done before and that it will be done again. Everything we are experiencing here on Earth has, in fact, been experienced before on other worlds.

We know that the boy Joseph Smith had a question, so he asked it. His question was answered in a very real and very amazing and deeply touching way. God the Father, and His son Jesus the Christ came to Joseph and stood above him, answering his question about what church to join. Telling his story, he said that “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air.” [Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith History 1:17] Joseph saw God the Father and Jesus Christ in person. We are also taught that “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also” [Doctrine & Covenants 130:22] God and Jesus Christ are flesh and bone, just like us. Members of the LDS Faith (Mormon’s) are not the only ones to have this knowledge. The Resurrected Christ appeared to His apostles in the Bible and said to them, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” [Luke 24:39 – King James Bible]

God had Jesus Christ create this Earth for us to live on. Why? We are literally God’s spirit children. The biggest part of His plan was that we live away from Him so we could learn to choose for ourselves. So he created a place for us to Live. This Earth was created for us as a place of comfort. We needed a place to live away from God because we could not learn the lessons we needed to while living with Him. This alone says that God does, in fact, LIVE! Jesus Christ LIVES!

When we think of heaven we all think of different things, I know I must have a different image of what Heaven must look like even than my husband has. Some people probably think of heaven as state of mind or that Heaven is just a place that we will all float for eternity watching the universe around us. But if we take a step back and look at the facts that we know, we might come to a completely different answer.

Today they, God and Christ, are both living bodies of flesh and of blood. We are created in His image, and as such, we must have a place to dwell. That’s why He created the Earth. As God and Christ have bodies like us, it stand to reason that they, like us, need a physical and tangible place to live. Dare I say their own world? This idea shouldn’t be new to any LDS members, as we read in The Pearl of Great Price in the book of Abraham, talk of Kolob, the time of God and that one day to God is one thousand years according to our reckoning. So the idea that God lives on a distant planet, with its own Sun and own rotation is more than just an imaginative idea, it just makes sense.

Further, God and Christ (as already stated above) have a different time table than we do. Our finite minds find it incredible hard to grasp, but it is true. Think about this. After the crucifixion Christ was resurrected. He ascended to Heaven to be with His Father. He then appeared to His apostles after the fact in his flesh and bone resurrected form. God and Christ both came in person to Joseph Smith. Our concept of time and space is infantine. So wrapping our brains around this might be difficult, but looking at all the things we know, God and Christ (as well as any number of heavenly hosts and angels) have visited this planet to talk with individuals from a far off planet of which we know little, except that it exists.

Shows like Star Trek, Dr. Who, Star Gate and so many more exist because somewhere deep in our souls, we already know we are not alone. Could it be that space travel, the concept of time travel, different dimensions, other worlds and alien races are simply our spirits crying out to our infantine minds that there is something out there? Are we simply trying to find our way back home to the Father? IS our search into the universe and for other life nothing more than our spirits trying to teach our bodies that yes, we are in fact, Not Alone!?

I promise this: We are NOT ALONE in the universe. There are other planets out there, possible thousands or more of them, with intelligent life and creatures. And if we ever did reach them, I think we would be astounded and humbled to find that those life forms are not as alien as we suspected.