Nothing and Everything

Brother Hansen, thank you so much. I genuinely and personally am grateful for your invoking the spirit to help me give this talk. So we have a little more hope there.

Second thing is, working as a success coach on the ninth floor, I see a lot of familiar faces. I also see a lot of unfamiliar faces. So, please go to your advisors and get your grad planner figured out. It is so much easier to get through an obstacle course if you already know the route.

The third thing, it is a strange feeling to hear your life summarized, as Vice President Chowen just did for me. When she said, here is what Elder Taylor’s done, I was thinking, that’s not what I’m proud of. I’m proud of the fact that despite a fancy education and a career with the Marines, that I still came to Jesus Christ. That I still accepted the gospel and chose a different path. I’m proud of the fact that somehow, I don’t know how, I convinced this amazing woman sitting beside me to “hitch her wagon” to my horse and I’m so grateful for everything she has given. We have seven children. I”ve watched the process of bringing children into the world six times. We had two for one with twins. I don’t think I can make that sacrifice and to watch my wife happily and cheerfully go through that process time and time again, puts me in awe. Thank you for keeping me once you found out what you really got.

And now to my script. Hello!
I am Elder Taylor and I have been assigned for my Mission to work here at Ensign as an Academic Advisor for the last 18 months. Today is my last day on my mission - my truck is literally packed up and ready to go and I will this evening arrive home with my family - and sleep in late tomorrow. (All of you can think about that with a 7:15 class tomorrow) But, the mission is not over just yet, and I have been asked to provide a spiritual message for this Devotional meeting, where we are enjoying so many songs of Christmas.

When we focus on Christ and His life’s work, Christmas is wonderful anywhere in the world, but enjoying the Christmas season here in Salt Lake can be extra special - Utahns seem to really love and appreciate lights on trees. And this goes double for Temple Square.

If, somehow, you haven’t seen Temple Square - and even the General Conference Center at night then that is something you really want to do.

And   it seems God is also a fan of lots of lights. When I look at the lovely lights at Temple Square, I am always reminded of looking at the stars in the sky - if you have never had an opportunity to see the sky on a clear and dark night, to be made to feel insignificant when invariably thoughts turn to your spot in the universe, then I highly recommend you find a way to do so - there are places here in Utah even where you can get away from the light pollution of the big cities and see the stars in all their splendor. We are told God created worlds “without number” and looking at the stars in the heavens, this is believable.

Here is a classic “Night Sky” picture with the Milky Way shown prominently. The big, colorful mess running diagonally across the picture is the Milky Way, which is the galaxy planet Earth lies within. Now, just to point out one detail - the Milky Way looks this way because we are looking at our own galaxy sideways from the inside. Now, I’m a math guy. There are an estimated 100 to 400 Billion (!) stars in our Galaxy. I say estimated because it is very difficult to count the stars while we are looking from inside the galaxy itself.

But what is a ‘billion’? People can’t easily picture a ‘billion’ anything. You can probably imagine 1,000 people, which is roughly ½ the students in the college. Do so now - try to picture 1,000 people standing in a huge parking lot. Let’s call those people a “clump”. Now - think of each single person in that “clump” as being themselves an entire “clump” - that would be 1 Million people (1,000 thousand). Think of that million as a ‘group’. Now - back to the “clump” - think of each person in a clump as being a ‘group’. So now each of your 1000 people represents 1 million people. Now you have a billion. For the stars in the Milky Way - the LOWEST estimate we have is 100 billion stars. That is a lot. But if that “visualization” doesn’t work for you - Salt Lake City has an estimated population of 222,000 people. Here is a map of the area that is included in Salt Lake City proper:

Now, here are 100 “Salt Lake Cities” shown:

If I “FILL” all of Utah with Salt Lake Cities, I can get 490 in the State:

We can call that 500 - the extra 10 will somehow fill in on the blank space between the blue outlines. So imagine the density of people, buildings, etc., of Salt Lake City being uniform across the entire state of Utah.

But we need something around 450,000 SLC’s to represent the number of suns in our Milky Way, not 500. Rather than doing that - the WORLD population today is estimated to be 8.23 billion people. So, if you simply can imagine every single person in the world where each person - man, woman, and child - is a sun, you would need 12 entire earths to represent 100 Billion suns, and you would STILL be short. And that is the low end of the estimate!

And if that isn’t a big enough number to humble you, realize that these numbers are just for OUR galaxy, the Milky Way. All of those points of light in the sky outside of the Milky Way are not stars - they are too far away for a single star to be visible with the naked eye. Each point of light that you see is actually ANOTHER galaxy, that has a similar number of stars and planets. And that is just looking in one direction… I won’t go into the notion of the “visible universe” and what lies beyond that (spoiler: it keeps going!) but are you feeling small and insignificant yet?

You are not alone:

Moses, as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:7-10, after he was shown the history and future of just THIS world, stated “Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.”

And that was JUST this one world! In Moses 1:33, Heavenly Father further states “And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose;”

And what is God’s purpose? Exactly - what do you think he is doing on all those other worlds out there? Same thing He’s doing here on this world.

And here is the crazy part: as insignificant as each of us are numerically amongst all the children of God in all the universe with its many, many stars and “worlds without number”, we are also, at the same time, and without any contradiction, unique, special and absolutely known to God, the creator of all that Universe.

The surprise then is that God really does have an individual, personal, relationship with EACH and EVERY one of us. Imagining “Billions” is hard, but this one-on-one relationship is mind-boggling, especially when you consider the sins I (making it personal now) have committed to offend God - and yet He still cares, He still loves me. Ignoring the question of “how”, the question of “why” is enough to give me pause.

I can relate to the child in the sculpture that is right here on our campus:

The sculpture does a good job of portraying how I feel in my own life: unsteady, weak, ready to fall at any moment, arms outstretched to grasp, if not a particular thing, then everything in the world. For the child, the next step is a   “maybe”.... Obviously, I am projecting my own feelings onto a statute, but the sense that my desires and hopes are well beyond my capabilities is there.

But, then if I pull the camera back out and assume the perspective of a (to me) also relatable person - the father - (and many of you will relate to the mother, instead) things start to make more sense.

My wife and I have 7 children - hardly keeping up with Heavenly Father - but it is enough to give me a different perspective. Yes, as a father, I give my children rules and expectations. Yes, I am upset when they break the rules or fail to live up to my expectations - but the anger isn’t because they dared to disobey me, it is because I know - even if they do not - that when they break those rules, they   have hurt themselves or their siblings, who are also my children whom I love.

I do not give my kids rules to exert power over them and inflate my own sense of self-worth - that is exhausting and entirely pointless - nor have I ever encountered a person who would do so.

I give them rules because I understand better than they do the circumstances they are in now and the circumstances they will be in later. I tell them, “Don’t stick a fork in that power socket” because I personally know what will happen if they do. “Do your homework” is a rule not because the homework itself will have long lasting consequences, but rather the habit of getting their work done, and the mental skills they develop in the process, will definitely have life-long application and impact.

I genuinely want my children to have the best life possible but I know that the “easiest” life possible will bring them to ruin and cause them to never develop the strength and talents they need to live on their own. And thus it is with our Heavenly Father - it is not by accident that we have the family as the essential unit of society.

Heavenly Father does not love us because of what we have accomplished or what we do, but because of our relationship to Him. We are his children and he has given us this universe in which to grow, to wonder, to strive, yes - to fail, to experience all of the emotions of mortality, so that we can grow to become more like Him.

So, as you see the beautiful lights wrapped around trees, shining in the night, be humble and remember your place as a tiny speck in the Universe. Yes, you are unfathomably “nothing” but at the same time lift your head up because you are also loved with the equally unfathomable love of a Divine Father - who created that universe - and you possess similarly unfathomable divine potential. Do not let the lights of the trees nor the lights in the sky intimidate you, but rather let them remind you of the love and attention Heavenly Father has for you and pays to you.

And one last thought to leave with you: We have spent a lot   of time trying to visualize, to fathom, the number of stars visible in the night’s sky. But, when it came time for Heavenly Father to announce the arrival of his beloved Son, the Savior of the world and ALL of God’s children, into mortality, he did not use all of those billions of stars - he chose just one of them. And so each of us, when the right task or opportunity comes along, as numerically insignificant as we are, can be chosen to light the way, to be a beacon of hope and guidance to others.

I pray the stars in the sky fill you with a sense of wonder all of your life, and that you feel the love of God when you look upon them.

It has been my pleasure to serve you these 18 months, and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.