Through Grandpa Lybbert's Eyes: Blessed are the meek, those who hunger and thirst, the pure in heart

Grandpa Lybbert saw a sermon in a banana peel or a walnut shell because he saw the creative genius of God in all of nature around him.  And Grandpa had eyes to see this because he had studied and taught botany, horticulture and agriculture for many years in public school and worked with plants all his adult life.  He even had a claim to fame for having developed a strain of the Heart of Gold cantaloupe!  

His love for learning and deep appreciation for the beauty and complexity of nature comes through in much of his writings about the Beatitudes.  In discussing "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth" he says:

What a beautiful, warm, friendly invitation in this beatitude to enjoy and make the most of our stay on earth.  To inherit the earth we must be able to see and appreciate its meaning, purpose, design and beauty.  This preparation includes nearly every branch of science:  chemistry, physics, astronomy, biology, physiology, botany, zoology, plant pathology, geology, plant physiology, and countless others.  There is beauty in all things around us—color, design, and arrangement—if we can only prepare ourselves to appreciate it.  When we contemplate the preparation necessary to understand and appreciate the earth, we certainly see the tremendous meaning of the beatitude, “Blessed are the meek…” (the teachable, the willing, eager to learn).

He applies the same view to “those who hunger and thirst after righteousness”:

…If a person is really hungry or thirsty, he will go to any end to satisfy that hunger or thirst…This beatitude also makes more explicit Jesus’ expectation…that members of the kingdom should learn right principles wherever they are to be found, that they should gain intelligence (light and truth) with all the energy and commitment they possess…

We have a grave responsibility to think, to learn, to improve and develop ourselves, and with a keen sense of urgency to overcome all obstacles in our pathway…If we are to become “perfect as our Father which is in heaven is perfect” we must “seek…diligently and teach one another words of wisdom; yea, seek…out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith.” (D&C 88:118) In short, we must “hunger and thirst after righteousness.”

There is definitely a sense of urgency, resolve and determination in his words, but also an overriding sense of awe and wonder that drives him to want to learn all he can about…all he can! 😊

I absolutely love his response to “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

First he says,  “Modern revelation sheds additional light upon [the meaning of] this promise”:

The earth rolls upon her wings, and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night, and the stars also give their light, as they roll upon their wings in their glory, in the midst of the power of God.

Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand?

Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these hath seen God moving in his majesty and power.

I say unto you, he hath seen him; nevertheless, he who came unto his own was not comprehended.

The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not; nevertheless, the day shall come when you shall comprehend even God, being quickened in him and by him.

Then shall ye know that ye have seen me, that I am, and that I am the true light that is in you, and that you are in me; otherwise ye could not abound.  (D&C 88:45-50)

Then Grandpa continues:

We have ample occasions to see God in his work.  Some of the nearest at hand are the plants and animals all around us.  “Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.”  This line from the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer celebrates the intelligence and power of God that is manifest in the creation of plants.  One who studies trees even casually cannot help but be impressed by their complexly(sic) interrelated structures:  roots, trunk, limbs, leaves, blossoms, seeds; the veins of the leaves, the stomatal openings, the chlorophyll.  The stomatal openings in the under part of the leaves take the carbon dioxide from the air and the veins conduct the water (with its mineral contents) from the soil via the roots and trunk.  Then the chlorophyll of the leaf breaks up the molecules of carbon dioxide and water into their component parts and reunites them in the form of starches and sugars, which pass back through the veins of the leaf, through the limbs, and back into the plant, to be built into blossoms, fruits, and seeds.

Who would be foolish enough to say that these complicated structures and functions of the plant created themselves, or came about by chance?  However, this is not the greatest marvel of creation.  In plant life, every living cell has locked up within it the possibilities of the whole plant, and can pass these functions and structures on to the next generation, together with the same power of reproduction.

But the plant is not the greatest marvel of creation.  The miracle of human reproduction is the greatest miracle in the universe.  Think of the uniformity of structure and function that is passed on from one generation to the next:  the bones and joints, eyelashes, fingernails, eyes, ears, nose, teeth, tongue, digestive organs, the heart and lungs, and all other vital organs, the nervous system, the circulatory system.  Scientists tell us that if we were to reproduce the human nervous system in a model using wires the size of a strand of spider web for nerves, the model would be so big that the nerves of the feet alone would cover a city block.  And those nerves are placed according to a pattern, each nerve placed in each individual body according to a plan.

To get a notion of the immensity of the circulatory system, if all the blood vessels of the human body were placed end to end, they would be long enough to go two and a half times around the earth. A computer model of the human brain would be larger than the whole earth.  Yet all of this is passed on from generation to generation through a single microscopic cell that has to be magnified 300 times to be seen by the human eye.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”