Senior Grand Deacon
There are very few things in this created world of ours as serene and beautiful to me as mountains.
According to the scientific community, these scenes that are so tranquil and peaceful to us have not always been that way. In fact, scientists have offered the explanation that the formation of some of these beautiful, majestic monuments was caused by the earth’s tectonic plates smashing together. This surely would not have been a tranquil and peaceful scene. The noise, vibration, force, and disaster emanating from this event must have been tremendous.
Yet, after the cataclysmic event, it has become one of the more beautiful, peaceful, and serene things that we are blessed to be able to enjoy.
So it is in our lives. We endure what seems to us to be cataclysmic events, or disasters, during the course of our lives; events that seem to be hopeless at the time we face them. It seems to us that the “smashing together ” will never end.
The Great Architect knows how to design and build useful, tempered characters and lives, as well as a Universe. Our Great Creator uses these events in our lives to temper us and create results that are just as serene and beautiful as the mountains.
So when you hear the noise, feel the vibration, experience the smashing, and are burdened with the chaos of events in your life, have faith in our Creator that He is at work preparing you for that tranquil, peaceful time that is sure to come.
Fraternally submitted,
M. Keith Ballard, Senior Grand Deacon
Grand Lodge of Mississippi, F&AM
