 |
| Art by Ryan Woodward: https://twitter.com/ryanwoodwardart/status/340062524122730496/photo/1 |
"Every reader of the Book of Mormon knows the dream of the tree of life. We not only tell and retell the story of the dream, we draw it on chalkboards and paint it on canvases. But the dream provides no static picture. Features of the dreamscape emerge one at a time, each coming into focus only at the appropriate moment - precisely as in a dream. But because we try to take in the whole dream at once, we tend to miss something crucial about it. In the dreams's first half, there's no talk of iron rods, narrow paths, dark mists, or strange buildings. It's only when Lehi sees 'numberless concourses of people' that the way to the tree becomes difficult (8:21). Lehi himself simply runs to the tree when he sees it, heedless of dangerous rivers and imposing buildings, without a path or a rod to guide him. When he beckons to Sariah, also, and to Sam and Nephi, he says nothing of dangers and sources of assistance; he simply calls them to the tree. And although Laman and Lemuel refuse to come and eat, it seems they too could have come without hinderance. The whole family of Lehi apparently has ready access to what subsequent multitudes work hard (and often fail) to reach.
What marks the break between the easier experience of Lehi's family and the more difficult experience of the multitudes? The turning point in the dream is the moment when Laman and Lemuel 'would not come . . . and partake of the fruit' (verse 18). It's at that moment that Lehi says he saw 'a rod of iron' and 'a strait and narrow path' and 'numberless concourses' (verses 19-21). Might the sudden shift in the dreamscape, specifically when Laman and Lemuel refuse the tree, mean that the numberless concourses are the children of Laman and Lemuel--perhaps especially in the last days?"
