Seeds of Divinity

Sister Rosemary M. Wixom said in her October 2015 general conference talk that "we come to earth to nurture and discover the seeds of divine nature that are within us." That image resonated with me. When I reflect on it, I come to the conclusion that these seeds of divine nature in us are bits of divine light--or even of divinity itself--that nestle in us just like a seed does in the ground. What are these seeds? To me, they're any and every good impulse or true idea. In this sense, seeds constantly blow into us from other worlds and form the basis for our thoughts and actions. At the moment I go out of my way to say a kind word to a fellow ward member, I'm acting from a good impulse that is actually a seed from heaven--a seed of light, of love, of divinity. On the other hand, if you say mean things about another or indulge in pornography, you're acting from a bad impulse or a seed of darkness and selfishness.

I can tell when a seed has planted itself in me and has begun growing when I discern a slight tendency to go a certain way in my consciousness. Have you ever felt a sudden peace or surge of goodwill come upon you? Or by contrast, have you ever felt a sudden burst of lust or hatred? I don't think that these sudden surges of emotion come from you: they come from their source in higher world's and have planted themselves in you like a seed floating on heavenly winds. It's your job to nurture the good ones and uproot the bad ones. The Little Prince described this well when it showed how the main character had to regularly uproot baobab saplings lest they get too big and destroy the tiny planet where they had rooted themselves.

And based on the religious thinkers and visionary experiences I've read, I think there's good reason to believe that one's "resurrection body" is made out of the seeds you choose to nurture. When you're resurrected, "that which ye do send out shall return unto you again" (Alma 41:15), meaning that every impulse of good (or evil) you make real in action becomes a part of your eternal being. That's not to say that we can't repent, of course. Swedenborg explained this well when he described how the evil choices we make can never be entirely eradicated from our being, but are "relegated to the side" of heaven into hell so that we only see and identify the good parts. The only perfect being is Christ, and only He lacks the evil that is inherent in human beings.

In this sense, the resurrection "turns around" the world so that everything is seen not by how they appear but by the inner being they have declared through their choices. When we are resurrected, the ground passes away and only the plants (or better the fruits) that came from that ground remain. Paul actually says this in 1 Corinthians 15:36-38 (NIV):

"You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own."

This world is where we grow the seeds that blow in from higher worlds. And we can't take anything from this world except the fruits that grow from those seeds. So choose the right seeds and grow the right fruits.