Arrivals and departures

Last Saturday, with my mother, I attended my Great Aunt Nora Bradshaw’s funeral. She was 101 years and 7+ months old when she passed away. Her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, and one great-great-great grandchild gave her a wonderful tribute.

I said at the time that her husband Preston, who preceded her by fifteen years or so into the spirit world, was certainly waiting with great anticipation for her to arrive there. I suggested that when she did, he might have said: " ‘Bout time you got here.” He was a man of few words.

When the tragedy in Haiti occurred this past week, I began to think about the spirit world and the processes of arrival and departure that must occupy many of the spirits there almost full time. I thought about the organization that must be required to send spirits into mortality and to welcome them back from mortality. Imagine 100,000 spirits arriving almost simultaneously in the spirit world. So then I began to wonder about the routine departures for mortality and the routine arrivals from mortality. Each departing spirit must be prepared for mortality individually and each arriving spirit must be welcomed individually and prepared for life in the spirit world.

So I think that a large part of the man/womanpower in the spirit world is consumed with these efforts. 100,000 people seemed like a lot to me to handle all at once, until I really looked into the statistics. I found the following statistics for 2009 (estimated) on the Internet, so they must be true:

Birth Rate:                                        Death Rate:
20 births/1,000 population                  8 deaths/1,000 population
128.9 million births per year              53.4 million people die each year
353,015 births per day                       146,357 people die each day
14,709 births each hour                      6098 people die each hour
245 births each minute                      102 people die each minute
4 births each second of every day      Almost 2 people die each second

353,015 births per day, each one going exactly where it is planned and foreordained to go! 146,357 deaths per day, each one welcomed back with love and directed to their proper place! I can’t imagine the organizational structure needed to deal with each of these spirits individually. An extra 100,000 or so spirits were probably dealt with quite easily.

I don’t mean to treat the tragedy in Haiti lightly. No doubt there is mourning in the spirit world just as there is here when a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions such as Haiti occurs. We (almost the entire mortal world) mobilize our vast resources to provide support and succor for victims. For instance, members of the LDS Church contributed $282.3 million in cash donations to humanitarian aid between 1985 and 2008. The value of humanitarian material assistance rendered worldwide during that time was $833.6 million. (Taken from www.lds.org statistics pages) Yet the Church’s contribution is only a small part of the aid and assistance given by generous individuals, religious and secular organizations, and governments worldwide.

I am convinced that the same process occurs in the spirit world to help alleviate confusion and shock in those affected by tragedy, both living and dead. The spirit world must be a busy place, and it must take concerted effort to make it welcoming and peaceful -- It boggles my mortal, finite mind. Like most of the things of eternity, the management of this flow is beyond my comprehension. In an article titled “Temple Consciousness for the Dead” in the Improvement Era, of March, 1940, by Prof. N. L. Nelson, he reasons:

When Jesus announced that eventually every soul, save those who have committed the unpardonable sin, would "bow the knee" to the order of heaven, He did not imply that this stupendous result would just happen as a by-product of an eternal drift. On the contrary. He evidently had in mind a mission organization in the spirit world of such magnitude and effectiveness as our feeble and spasmodic efforts on earth can hardly prepare us to realize.

And yet, arrivals and departures are really a small part of the work that must be done there. Preaching the gospel to the millions of spirits there must be an ever-increasing effort. We know that each person who leaves this earth without knowledge must be taught the gospel and given the opportunity to accept the earthly ordinances as they are performed for them in our temples. Elder Eldred G. Smith, in October 1969 General Conference, said this:

The Savior established his organization on the earth during his ministry. He preached to the disembodied spirits after his crucifixion. He established his organization on this continent among the Nephites after his resurrection. I think we can reasonably assume he also established his organization in the spirit world so the teaching of his gospel can be made known to all mankind after death, if not during this lifetime.

There is also unimaginable priesthood power and expertise in the spirit world. Think of the great prophets and teachers of the Old Testament. Think of Peter, James and John. Think of all the prophets of the Book Of Mormon. Think of Father Adam. Think of 15 modern-day prophets, led by the prophet of the restoration. Now imagine all of these men and women having progressed mightily during the years since they entered the spirit world. What must they be capable of as they use their eternal knowledge and priesthood power to both teach and direct efforts there under the control of the Savior and the Father? Again, in his article cited above, Prof. N. L. Nelson says:

Think of Paul today after nineteen centuries of improved preaching technique; and the number of his fellow-laborers has been increasing, as it were, in geometric progression, both by accessions from the earth-plane and also from the ranks of spirit converts, all of whom must perforce react to the divine law that whosoever receives the truth is under obligation to pass it on. If we have wondered how the billions of spirits that have come on earth and gone without having heard the name of Christ must yet be held accountable before the bar of God, here is the answer.

We have all seen pictures of the universe and its billions of galaxies as captured by the Hubble telescope. It is my feeling that they only give us an inkling of the power and majesty of the Father’s creations. Their vastness cannot be comprehended. The Hubble cannot begin to see that far. And yet, He knows my name and your name. He knows every spirit who leaves the pre-existence, and every spirit who enters the spirit world because we to are His and our Heavenly Mother’s creations.

What a blessing it is to be able to understand even a small part of the real nature of God. He is a personal God. He is a loving God. He desires to give us everything He has. We who have this knowledge are expected to live our lives and prepare ourselves, as did my great aunt Nora, to be welcomed into the spirit world by our loved ones, so that we can be anxiously engaged in contributing to the vast ongoing work there.

I think that there will be little time in the hereafter, as the old spiritual says, to have “nothing to do but roll around heaven all day.”