A Father’s Day Tribute

God The Father
Father’s Day 2008

I don’t remember the exact details, but this is what I’ve put together so far. The spirits were innumerable, but we all felt we had front row seats. The Father presented His plan, we would take on a mortal body, different from the spiritual one we currently have. We were all excited, but we didn’t know exactly what that meant.

He taught us that we would be in a fallen state, sin would be rampant and people would make poor choices that would directly and indirectly lead to a lot of suffering and pain. We learned that when we made a poor choice, He would allow the natural consequences to happen, which was another way of saying we would be punished for our own sins.

After we understood His plan pretty well, He asked for a volunteer to help us. This was a little confusing at first; we questioned why we needed help. He explained that we currently live in a state of perfection, no sin, and no transgression. This Celestial sphere is the only state that allows us access to His Presence, meaning our Father. If, at any time, we violate a law, any law, we relegate ourselves to a lower kingdom or state of being, for no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God.

He had another concept to teach us before we sufficiently understood; there is a law, he explained, irrevocably decreed long before He was God, that all blessings are predicated upon obedience to specific laws. He also taught us that there would be opposition to everything good. We understood that to mean that when we disobey, we would receive consequences.

This new state of being forbids us from ever being in the presence of the Father again. Once a sin has been committed, the sin never goes away and we can never come back again. The plan was becoming a little scary, why would we want to take on a physical body and endure forever outside of our Father’s presence? That doesn’t make sense!!!

I can picture a smile coming over our Father’s face as we made this connection. There wasn’t a single spirit in my circle of family and friends who didn’t want to be in the presence of the Father forever. We all listened as He continued to teach us…The only way back would be for another God, a perfect being, to voluntarily give up His life for your behalf.

How could that be? Why would someone give up their life and suffer for us? We pondered this thought. And then we thought of even better questions to ask: 1) WHO would be the proxy to die for us? And 2) WHO would want Him to suffer? We looked around and asked: Would you want someone to suffer for something you did wrong?

As our minds were deep in thought, Jehovah stepped forward to answer the first question: He was like unto the Father, He was the Firstborn. His words were eternal as He calmly looked at His Father and said: “Here am I, send me.” Then He looked at us with a penetrating love so deep as to pierce our souls.

Jehovah just volunteered to sacrifice His life so we could come into the Father’s presence again. But how is that possible since our sins will never go away according to the law. Jehovah explained that His mortal body would be different than ours. Whereas we will all be born of the flesh, he will be sired by our Father in Heaven.

He will have power over death while on earth, but in order for us to return to the Father He will give up His life at the hands of some very wicked men, who will be the leaders of His chosen people while on earth. He explained that blood will spill forth from every pore and that the pain will be greater than any human could endure. The act of giving up His life by the shedding of blood will satisfy the dredge of sin. In other words, His blood will cover over all of our sins.

He called this the Condescension of God, which meant He would descend from His Heavenly Throne to the level of a mortal and allow Himself to be subjected to the rudest, most vile and inhumane treatment any of us would ever endure. His suffering will be greater than all of us will ever suffer. The difference between His suffering and our suffering is a simple concept; we will suffer because of our own actions, called sin, and we are therefore accountable for those sins.

He, on the other hand, will have no sins and have no need to suffer the consequences of sin, but He will anyway. Again, the question was asked: WHO wants Him to suffer? Why can’t our Father just let us back into His presence because He says so?

Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, then stepped forward and volunteered. We were confused, why was he volunteering, we already have Jehovah! Lucifer argued that the original plan was too risky; too many people will not be make it back and that made the plan flawed.

That’s not right, we thought, Jehovah said He would die for all of us. Yes, all of you emphasized Lucifer, meaning those who repent and take upon them the Name of Christ. But for those who don’t repent, well, they must suffer just like Christ will on the cross. Do you have any idea what it’s going to be like to bleed at every pore?

I can imagine myself thinking that was a stupid question, of course not, I would have said, no one here has ever had a body, therefore, we don’t know what kind of pain it will be and He, meaning Jehovah, won’t know until He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane. Besides, we were wondering, what’s in it for you?

Lucifer explained how we could all come to earth, get a physical body and return without risking a single soul. Not a bad idea on the surface, what’s the catch? Look it, he explained, our Father’s giving us all our agency, which is the power to act righteously. As long as we obey, we increase our agency, but if we choose poorly, we lose our agency.

I don’t like the odds, he continued. Why should we lose anybody? After explaining how no soul will be lost, he proffered his terms. If I bring everyone back to the presence of the Father, all I want is His Honor. That comment sent shivers down my spiritual spine.

We were aghast at his audacity. God’s honor is more than a small payday, His honor is His power. It’s where He derives the ability to create the Heavens and the Earth. All the matter and intelligences in the universe pay homage to our Father because He is their organizer and holds them in perfect symmetry with one another.

A great war of words broke out over this, Lucifer rallied his forces and it was clear to us he was only after the glory. His pride got the better of him and he went contrary to the Father. In fact, he just violated a law and the consequences of that law will eventually see him thrown out of the heavens.

Michael organized a great army to combat the forces of Lucifer and we struggled in a mighty war to overcome the false teachings that Lucifer and his gang promulgated. In due time, Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, was cast out of heaven along with a third part of the spirits. After Lucifer was gone, the Father and Jehovah taught us more about His Plan of Happiness. We learned that Jehovah would create the Heavens and the Earth under the direction of the Father and that He would be the only way back into the presence of the Father.

This creative process would put Him in a position to be our Father because He would be the great Creator of all things. Then while on earth, we would have the chance to be baptized in the name of Jehovah’s mortal name, Jesus Christ and we would become ‘begotten sons and daughters unto God’ through His atoning sacrifice, so He would become the Father of those who would be born again. This means we will have the ability to become like our Father and His Only Begotten Son.

Another way Jehovah would become the Father is through ‘Divine Investiture of Authority’. In other words, He will act in the position of the Father for all mankind. He will be the conduit to the Father and whatsoever Jehovah said, will be the same as though it came from the Father. We will communicate to our Father through the Son and the Son will conduct all the business affairs of our mortal probation.

The Plan was ever more clear and we sang for joy as the creative process commenced and the Father gathered His Noble and Great Ones to participate in organizing the location of our future Celestial Kingdom. One thought still permeated our minds, WHO. Who is demanding the suffering of the Savior?

The thought probably crossed my mind, why did Lucifer want the honor of God? If God did not have any honor, which is His power, then there would be no need for an atonement, and if there were no atonement, then all creations would be for naught.

Since God’s honor is the fact that all creations obey His very word, he has the power to organize matter and life and to create worlds without end. (Abraham 4:18)

“And this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” Eternal Life is becoming like our Father and learning the process by which godhood is attained. Jehovah explained by saying: “Ye are gods,” and all creations are placed in a pattern, or a system of obedience to their respective laws. We can all return to the Father by following the pattern I establish while on earth.

Use Me as an example. This system is called the Plan of Happiness and will be organized through Apostles and Prophets. Each of you will be given an equal opportunity to receive the Plan of Happiness.

The Angels shouted for joy, the choirs sang and Michael escorted Lucifer out of the Father’s presence and thrust him down to a lower sphere, where he set up a counterfeit system to tempt mankind and do all in his power to thwart the Plan of God.

I stand before you now, my family and my friends in the very act of mortal probation. Many, if not all of you fought alongside Adam as we cast the Son of the Morning out of the heavens and you were counted among the Noble and Great Ones. Each of us is now engaged in the Predestined Plan that, if followed, will allow us back into a Celestial sphere where we can become gods as foreordained by Jehovah.

Today is Father’s Day and I wish to acknowledge my Father in Heaven and bear witness of His Plan. I give my undivided worship to the Father through His Son, Who is also the Father of my Salvation, through Divine Investiture of Authority, and because He is the Creator of all things.

I wish to conclude with a temporal story of another kind of father, an earthly father who did his best to emulate a higher authority. It was the middle of April in 1968 and the Viet Nam war was raging in Southeast Asia. Young Dale, 6 months removed from being baptized by his Father, was out in the street playing baseball as a Western Union telegram was delivered to his house. Shortly after the delivery driver disappeared, Bishop Jones drove up and Dale’s mom called him and his older brother in from the ball game. His mom was in tears and struggling with her emotions.

Bishop Jones assured the young family that everything would be all right. Dale and his older brother had two younger sisters, Teresa age 6, LaShel who was born just 14 months ago and another soon-to-be sister, Jennifer, still with her Heavenly Father. She would be born in another 6 weeks. The young family had already seen some tough times and a sense of belonging and completeness was finally permeating their home since Larry (Dale’s new father) married his mom and adopted the family. It had been less than two years (December 1, 1966) since they were sealed in the Los Angeles Temple for time and all eternity and now his new father was Missing In Action somewhere in the Kae Sahn province of Vietnam.

The first night the boys met Larry, he came to pick up their mother for a church activity, they were both serving in the Single Adult Ward, and he spent the first 30 minutes of the evening playing soccer with them. It was an unusual experience since the two sports-minded youngsters had never really had an adult male figure in their young lives. They couldn’t stop talking about how much fun it was to play soccer with Larry and they boasted how they even scored a goal against him. It wasn’t long after their encounter on the asphalt soccer field that Larry asked permission of the children to marry their mother.

Immediately after the wedding, the family moved to another city where Larry was stationed at Camp Pendleton as a career officer in the Marine Corp. The new life style was a difficult adjustment as Larry brought the fruits of the gospel into their home. Chaos was replaced with order. A parentless home was replaced with a mother always in the home. Random gospel obedience was replaced by a system of orderliness, cleanliness and study. The boys were required to read 30 minutes every day. And when their dad would get home they would play soccer, frisbee, football and sometimes baseball. He always spent time with them whenever he could.

It was very different for the boys seeing their mom so happy. They were taught the merits of work and how wrong choices had bad consequences. This was especially hard since they had so many years of experience with no consequences or direction. Structure was a foreign experience-akin to culture shock for the young boys. They went from Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn to boarding school with a Marine Captain as their boot camp instructor.

Three days after the Western Union message was delivered to their mom during a game of street baseball, two Marine Corps vehicles drove up and delivered another message. Dale’s older brother was up to bat and a sense of déjà vue stood the hair up on the backs of their skinny sun-baked necks.

The same scenario as before played out, except uncles and aunts were already at the house when the boys were called in. This time they were taken into their bedroom away from their crying mother where an uncle explained that their dad wasn’t coming home. He had been killed two days after Easter Sunday, on April 16, 1968. Jennifer would now get to visit her father as a spirit, but never experience his love and kindness as a mortal.

Dale and his brother still reminisce and wonder what life would have been like if Larry had lived? What would be different? Their mother’s life since his death has been very difficult and laden with hard knocks. The two younger girls from Larry have struggled looking for their identity having known no father.

The two brothers and two of the sisters have since served full-time missions. The three older siblings are sealed in the Temple to their respective spouses. The younger two are not married but are Temple endowed and worthy. The two brothers have now sent sons on missions; one to Taiwan, one to Alaska, one to Hungary, a foster son to Indiana last Wednesday, and in two weeks, another will enter the MTC and will serve in Spain. In roughly 6 weeks, the first great grandchild will be born to Dale’s nephew.

Thirty-eight years from Larry’s death, on Easter Sunday, April 16, 2006, I found myself with my son Scott at the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington D.C. remembering an earlier time when I was playing baseball with my brother Dale and two Marines delivered mortal finality to my mother. It was then that I was taken into my bedroom and told that my childhood was over at the tender age of 10 and that I was now the man of the family.

I had a little less than three years to learn the systems of obedience, prayer, study, knowledge, effectiveness and efficiency from my father Lawrence Himmer who fulfilled his foreordained calling on earth as dictated in the heavens beyond and in turn revealed to earth through a Stake Patriarch. He is now serving in the Lord’s vineyard in a different sphere. His calling is to preach the gospel of repentance to those who have passed away before receiving the blessings of baptism. Our Father in Heaven promised that all would have an equal chance of experiencing the Plan of Happiness and my earthly father presently serves as a ministering angel to those spirits without.

I wish to honor my earthly father who gave me his name and taught me how to treat my wife and my children. To those within the reach of my voice who are fathers, I wish to honor you. If you are faithful to your wife in all your dealings and put her on a pedestal and give her a higher priority than your friends, children and family, then I pay you the highest of honors.

In conclusion I wish to honor my Father in Heaven. He is my first priority! He to whom all my worship is given.