Pre-Existence

Many years ago I went to a mall with a neighbor of mine to run some errands. As we were walking along the shops we passed a lady with a TINY brand new baby in her arms. I smiled and said: "You know, I've often wondered if the veil of forgetting happens all at once when we are born or if it closes bit by bit over the first few months of life. Sometimes I think that it's all together possible that brand new infants may still remember what it was like to live with Heavenly Father. Maybe the reason it takes so long for human babies to acquire language is because God knows they still remember that important sacred stuff and He doesn't want them spilling the beans."

My friend looked at me like I was utterly insane and asked with total incredulity "WHAT are you talking about??" Then it hit me. My mistake. Because we were both people of deep faith in God it seemed we had much in common. But the reality was that our beliefs had some very big differences. In fact, MOST faiths do not believe in the concept of pre-existence. Some think our spirit came into being at conception. Some say it happens when a child takes his/her first breath. But other than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, I don't know of any who believe we lived as spirit children in the presence of God before we were born into this mortal life.

I just forget that sometimes. It feels so absolutely right and true, normal and obvious to me that I lived in Heaven before coming to this world. There I learned and progressed all I could in that spiritual state. Then, I was given the opportunity to CHOOSE to come to THIS life. I have no clue how much I knew about what it would be like. I'm sure it was explained to me that there would be pain, heartache, illness, suffering and death. But those concepts didn't mean a whole lot to me before experiencing what it was like to be in a physical body. So with great confidence and bravado I thought - YOU BET, I think it will be GREAT - SIGN ME UP!

Then came mortality. PAIN. HEARTACHE. ILLNESS. SUFFERING. Oh my. So much bigger than I had ever thought they could be. DEATH. Feels so real, so permanent, so absolute.

Still, it is so worth it. Because along with the sorrow there is joy, there is faith, there is wonder, curiosity, excitement and discovery.

There is so much about God, about life, about death that I do not understand. But there is absolutely not one single shred of doubt in my mind that I lived before I came here. I know without question that my mortal walk in this world is just a blip in eternity, and that when my spirit rises to meet the Savior when I'm all done I will be RETURNING, not going there for the first time.

In the words of William Wadsworth:

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home..."