Transcend

In LDS tradition, there is a title held by prophets, apostles, and key figures in the Bible: “Noble and Great Ones.” It is introduced in LDS scripture in the Pearl of Great Price, in the Book of Abraham:

Abraham 3: 22-23 –

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many noble and great ones.

23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

I read this verse the other day, and it has had me thinking about “what does it mean to be a noble and great one?” Does it mean you are perfect? Surely not, or there would only ever be one, Christ Himself. Does it mean you have to be a leader in a high position in God’s kingdom? Maybe, but then seminary teachers and youth leaders often refer to the students they teach as “Noble and Great Ones.”

These are all valid questions, but the main question, “What does it mean to be a noble and great one?” didn’t quite fully form in my mind until I came across a possible answer.

Sitting in a church meeting, with 10 other men, none of them perfect, all of them repenting of something or other, it hit me, not in words, but in an image and a feeling, an impression I had of all these men:

I saw a man in my head, beleaguered, wandering, messing up more often than not, getting up in years, and yet still nowhere near perfection. And yet he felt to me like one of those “Noble and Great Ones.”

Why? What made him “Noble,” let alone “Great”? . . . He kept trying.

Would a fierce persecutor of the disciples of Christ strike you as a “Noble and Great One”? No. Yet, Saul on the road to Damascus became Paul, one of Christ’s apostles, undeniably, a “Noble and Great One.”

Matthew was a tax collector. Mary Magdalene was literally possessed. Thomas is remembered for one thing: doubting. Peter was impulsive, emotionally volatile, denied Christ not once, but three times, and yet Christ called him “his rock.”

I believe all of these we would call “Noble and Great Ones,” and rightly so, but they are in no way perfect. President Gordon B. Hinckley taught that we are “Noble and Great Ones.” But if we’re not perfect, then how can we be “Great”?

Christ doesn’t just see us for what we are; He sees us for what we will become. Peter had to grow into “the rock” and could only do so with the assistance of “the rock of his salvation,” Jesus Christ.

We are the same. We may be beleaguered, wandering, messing up more often than not, getting up in years, but still nowhere near perfection. We don’t feel “Noble” and certainly don’t feel “Great,” and yet, that is exactly what Christ calls us.

He knows you are “Great” because you have the potential for greatness in you, and He knows you are “Noble” because you keep trying…