A Sense of Proportion

This post uses in discussion a plot point from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. It is not necessary to have read the book, but if you'd like to avoid spoilers for it, you may not want to read this now.


In President Uchtdorf's talk in today's General Relief Society Broadcast, one of the points he made is that we should not forget that the Lord loves us.

During this section of his talk, I remembered the Total Perspective Vortex from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. For anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about, the Total Perspective Vortex was created by a guy who got tired of his wife telling him to get a sense of proportion. So he created the Vortex, the function of which is described thus: "When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, 'You are here.'" And after seeing how tiny and insignificant they are when compared to the entirety of creation, everybody who enters goes mad.

Everybody except Zaphod Beeblebrox. When he is plugged into the machine, he comes out feeling great, having just seen that he is the most important being in the universe. You see, at that time he was in a universe created especially for him.

As I was listening to President Uchtdorf's talk, I thought that Zaphod's experience is the better representation of our importance. After all, the universe really was created for us.

It's hard to really understand how every one of the billions of people in existence could be that important, but I do believe it is true. The ordinances of the gospel are administered to individuals. We are baptized as individuals. We are confirmed as individuals. We are endowed as individuals. And we receive the blessings of the atonement as individuals. Because we each, individually, are important. We each, individually, are loved.

As Elder Uchtdorf said, "No matter how dark your days may seem, no matter how insignificant you may feel, no matter how overshadowed you think you may be, your Heavenly Father has not forgotten you. In fact, He loves you with an infinite love. Just think of it: You are known and remembered by the most majestic, powerful, and glorious Being in the universe! You are loved by the King of infinite space and everlasting time! He who created and knows the stars knows you and your name."

That really does put things into proportion, doesn't it?