My wife, the Regina, is pregnant with a baby boy. Little Rex is due in January, but is currently living in the Regina's tummy. This freaks me out. There is an actual person LIVING INSIDE of my wife. It is like an alien or something. It is weird. This idea facinates and horrifies me.
Ever wonder what life is like for baby in there? All he knows is relative darkness. He hears some muted sounds, maybe. He gets hunger pains, then they go away. I am becomming more and more aware that children think with developed mental capacities far earlier than I had previously thought. What does he think inside the womb? That this is all there is? Does he come up with anything like ergo cognito eimi? Does he think he's got a good handle on things? Thinks about how great it is to be him, in his little universe? Maybe he thinks he is huge because his universe is so small. Does he ever wonder or fear the strange pressure and movement when the noise is loudest and things most red? After nine months of this - it must seem like a long time to a baby - he probably feels pretty comfortable with that he's got everything figured out.
Then, something weird happens. Strange new feelings and noises. A tremendous pressure. Such light. Prickly sensation on skin. Pressure on lungs. Noise. Light. Cry. What happened to my universe? And, then and there he figures out that he really knew nothing at all and there is a whole lot left to learn.
That is what we are like here on Earth - in this universe for that matter. We think and think and think and study and measure and pronounce, but when it all comes down to it. We can only know what we see and hear and touch. If we are vain, then we think that is all there is. But it is not the truth. Just like the experiences inside the womb would make more sense if there were someway to communicate to the child what was going on - our experiences in this life would make more sense if there were only some way for us to know what was beyond.
That is the role of revelation. That is why we study and take the Scripures seriously. Yes, some of us go overboard and misuse or misunderstand what we've been given, but they are better off than the many who reject it outright. We have been communicated to. We have received instruction. We have been visited by the Beyond Himself, Jesus Christ. Let's not waste that knowledge. Let us prepare ourselves for eternity.