To set this straight right off the bat, this is not about
who won and who lost. This has nothing to do with how I feel about the outcome.
In fact, I will say nothing about my personal views toward the outcome. That
really doesn’t matter (and no matter what your views are, I’ll still be your
friend). I also realize that any of my thoughts on the election don’t really
matter overall either. But I keep thinking about these ideas, and when I keep
thinking about them in a way that I would write them, I know I should just
write them down.
In Moses 7, Enoch has a vision and sees God the Father, but
he sees the Father doing something he didn’t expect: weeping. “And it came to
pass that the God of heaven looked upon the residue of the people, and he wept;
and Enoch bore record of it, saying: How is it that the heavens weep, and shed
forth their tears as the rain upon the mountains? And Enoch said unto the Lord:
How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to
all eternity?” (Moses 7:28-29) In other words Enoch is asking, How can the God
of heaven, who is perfect in every way and has absolutely everything, how can
He weep? What is there for Him to be sad about? He has every reason to be
filled with the most profound joy. I think many of us might have asked similar
questions. When I picture my Heavenly Father I don’t often, if ever, picture
Him weeping or experiencing sadness.
The response that God gives to Enoch is, for me, one of the
most heart-wrenching replies in all of scripture. “The Lord said unto Enoch:
Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I
gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of
Eden, gave I unto man his agency; And unto thy brethren have I said, and also
given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should
choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate
their own blood…. Wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall
suffer?” (vs. 32-33, 38) God created man, His very crowning creation, “that
they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25). He gave man everything necessary to
achieve joy. He gave the ability to learn and have knowledge and understanding.
He gave agency, the ability to make choices. But He didn’t just give the tools
to achieve joy; He also told man exactly how
to achieve joy: love one another and choose God (love God). Yet when He looks
out over His beloved children He doesn’t see love, either for Him or for one
another. He sees hate, without care or regard (affection) for one another. These
children would not be able to experience the joy He intended for them. Instead,
they were bringing suffering to themselves and to others. Any person who has
witnessed a loved one make choices that would only bring them suffering can’t
help but empathize with the Father. It’s an experience that breaks your heart,
just as this sight of His children broke the Father’s heart and caused Him to
weep.
Now I don’t know whether the Father is “weeping” over the
outcome of this election, and again, the outcome isn’t the point here. But I do
know that He is weeping over the way people are reacting to the outcome, over
the hate that is abounding on all sides of the lines we’ve drawn. I recognize not
everyone is being hateful. There are plenty of people who are dealing
graciously with the results of being on the “winning” or “losing” sides.
However, it’s no secret that there’s a lot of tension, frustration, and
outright anger being thrown around. It’s everywhere. It’s in what we read. It’s
in what we watch. And in some cases it’s in what we’re saying and doing to one
another. Let me be clear: this is not ok. Many worry that our leaders are the
ones tearing our nation apart, but we’re doing that ourselves. We draw the
lines and then tear along them when we choose to see everyone who does not
agree with our views as “bigots” or “ignorant” or just as “bad people”, and
then attack and belittle them for those differences. Again, this is not ok.
I believe that the outcome itself is far less important in
the effect it will have on our nation than our personal reactions to the
outcome. The election has happened. It’s done. It’s in the past. We can’t
change the results (not without some serious upheaval and far more suffering
for everyone). But we have every power to change our own behavior going
forward. We can be the kind of people we hope that our leaders would be, and that would have a more profound and lasting effect on our nation than anything one leader can do.
