Description

The Great Tree of Life

One of the great trees of the world is the sacred ceiba tree. It was considered the “Tree of Life” to the ancient Maya.

I recently stood beneath some of these trees and contemplated the following.

Nephi saw a “Tree of Life” in a vision. He described it as beautiful, white, and precious above every other tree. He described the fruit as most desirable to make one happy.

He was caught away in vision and saw the most beautiful and fair of women in the village of Nazareth. It was Mary, the mother of Jesus, who would not be born for another 600 years. The next thing he saw was Mary caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, and when he next saw her, she was carrying that Baby in her arms.

After seeing these things, Nephi was then asked if he understood now the meaning of the tree. “…Yea,” he said in answer. “It is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men…” (1 Nephi 11:22)

You see? God’s love is like a great and beautiful tree shading and nourishing this earth. “The Tree of Life” was a representation of God’s love manifested in the coming of Jesus Christ. Indeed God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Christ is the living embodiment of God’s love for us. His word and Gospel, like a rod of iron, leads us back to that “The Tree of life or Tree of Love.” Christ came to lead us back to that very tree from which Adam and Eve were barred. And when we partake of that love by the Spirit, there is nothing in this world more powerful, more pure, more joyous to the soul than the love of almighty God. Nephi would later say, “He hath filled me with his love even unto the consuming of my flesh” (2 Nephi 4:21). To receive that love is our most desirable mortal experience.