Sunday Thoughts

Yesterday was a glorious day here in Utah. The skies were deep blue and Ogden and its surrounding hills are blossoming green in the spring weather. I couldn't help but notice how gorgeous this Earth is. How grateful I am to a loving Heavenly Father who made the Earth majestic and beautiful.
The following is a talk given by President Hinckley at BYU:

"I believe in beauty.

The earth in its pristine beauty is an expression of the nature of its Creator. The language of the opening chapter of Genesis intrigues me. It states that “the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen. 1:2). I suppose it presented anything but a picture of beauty.

“And God said, Let there be light: and there was light” (Gen 1:3). And so the creation continued until “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
I interpret this to mean that it was beautiful, for “out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight” (Gen 2:9).

I believe in the beauty of nature, and I see and believe in the beauty of animals.

I see and admire beauty in people. I am not so concerned with the look that comes of lotions and creams, of pastes and packs as seen in slick-paper magazines and on television. I am not concerned whether the skin be fair or dark. I have seen beautiful people in all of the scores of nations through which I have walked. Little children are beautiful everywhere. And so are the aged, whose wrinkled hands and faces speak of struggle and survival.
I believe in the beauty of personal virtue. There is so much of ugliness in the world in which we live. It is expressed in coarse language, in sloppy dress and manners, in immoral behavior which mocks the beauty of virtue and always leaves a scar. Each of us can and must stand above this sordid and destructive evil, this ugly stain of immorality."

What a great and simple testimony from a prophet of God about the nature of God and the beauty of ALL creations!