11 Now, concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection–Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God who gave them life.
As Alma taught his son Corianton, after we die, our spirits “are taken home” to God. Alma understood that we lived with God before we were born. I love the following passage from a poem by William Wordsworth:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home
(“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood“).
We can’t remember the events that occurred before our birth, and yet we are not here in “entire forgetfulness.” In quiet moments, we may sense that we did live with God before our mortal birth, and that to return to Him will be to go home.
Today, I will bear in mind that this life is a continuation of an existence which preceded my birth. I will remember that I am in many ways “a stranger here” who has “wandered from a more exalted sphere,” and who will return there someday (“O My Father,” Hymn 292).
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