On Friday and Saturday, we went to Chicago primarily motivated by the desire to help one of my sons and his wife go to the Chicago Temple while my wife and I took care of the kids. The breakfast at the nearby Best Western Hotel where we stayed was a load of fun for the kids and made it easy for us to entertain them.  Afterwards, we went to the stunning Chicago Botanical Garden (one of my favorite places in the Midwest).

After photographing a few water lilies, I noticed one that protruded a few inches above the water and cast a distinct shadow. But with the sun reflecting so brightly off the calm surface of the water, it didn't seem that a shot would work. Then I realized that if I could lean over it far enough enough, perhaps the shadow of the flower could block the excessive brightness of the sun and make a more balanced photo possible.

With the benefit of my long arms and legs and a solid iron railing (nope, this post isn't about Lehi's Dream and the iron rod!), I was able to find an angle that worked and get some shots I really liked, like this one:


I took a few more shots, then something strange happened: a bubble rose up from the bottom of the pond, disturbing the tranquil surface of the water as it made sudden waves around the flower. I captured the moment and found it beautiful. A second later the waves were gone, but a remnant of the bubble was still there as a reminder of what happened. Then it, too, vanished.


When I looked at these photos later, it occurred to me that some of the most precious viewpoints in life come from looking at things both from the right perspective and at the right time. Scenes that we might walk away from and ignore can offer great beauty, even miraculous beauty, when we strive to see them from a new perspective. There are small miracles waiting to be revealed in our life if we'll let the Lord guide us, both how look and things and when we take action.

A related analogy, for example, could be made for the Book of Mormon. Some people have given up on it and the Church because they are offended by the translation process and the silly notion of Joseph Smith dictating from a seerstone as he stares at it with his head in a hat to block out light that would otherwise be too bright to let him easily see whatever his mind perceived during the translation process. Dictating from a hat, how silly! But without too much stretching, there's a much more interesting perspective: he was dictating non-stop without a manuscript to read from, without notes, without rewriting, and in so doing gave us a text with layer after layer of beauty, rich in ancient elements, abounding in Semitic wordplays, revealing details from the Arabian Peninsula and the ancient world that were beyond the knowledge he could have accessed in that day. It is a miraculous text, and dictating it from a hat makes it all the more obvious that something miraculous is before us. As for timing, this is the day for Book of Mormon studies. The bubbles of knowledge aare rising after decades of waiting, and the view is more beautiful than ever.

I'd welcome your analogies on other topics from my little lily moment, if you care to share any.
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