In 1843, Joseph Smith taught a principle that brings heaven closer to our earthly experience. “There is no such thing as immaterial matter,” he said. “All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; we cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter” (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7-8).
He had previously taught that the Father and Son have tangible bodies, echoing the resurrected Savior’s invitation: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39; see also Matthew 28:9; John 20:27; 3 Nephi 11:14-15).
That contrast is clear: You can touch a physical body but not a spirit. As Joseph Smith also taught, if you try to touch a spirit, “you will not feel anything” (Doctrine and Covenants 129:4-8). You might on miraculous occasions see or hear a spirit, but you cannot touch them.
Which might lead you to conclude that spirit is something other than the physical substances we interact with each day. But Joseph says that spirit is matter, just like the solids, liquids, and gases that surround us. We can’t touch it, and we can’t even see it without divine intervention, but it is just as real as the things we can detect.
This concept has a precedent in the Book of Mormon. When the premortal Savior appeared to the brother of Jared at Mount Shelem, He said:
Seest thou that ye are created after mine own image? Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image.
Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh.
Ether 3:15-16
“The body of my spirit” is an unusual phrase. It implies that a spirit has substance, just a different kind of substance from a body of flesh. As the Savior points out, our spirits even look like our bodies. And because we are created in His image, our bodies resemble His premortal spirit.
What are the implications for us? We ought to remember that there is more to life than we are able to detect. As President Jeffrey R. Holland has testified:
God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. … On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places, … but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.
“The Ministry of Angels,” October 2008 general conference
Today, I will be grateful for the closeness of heavenly beings. I will remember that even when I can’t detect them, I am surrounded by heavenly help which is as substantial and real as the objects I can see and hear and touch.
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