“The great Jehovah contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth, pertaining to the plan of salvation, before it rolled into existence, or ever ’the morning stars sang together’ for joy; the past, the present, and the future were and are, with Him, one eternal ’now;’ (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 220; History of the Church, 4:597)¹.

My wife has been reading Forgiving Ourselves: Getting Back Up When We Let Ourselves Down by Wendy Ulrich and shared with me a significant section of her book with an insightful way to understand ’eternal now ‘ where she says,²

We think of the past as gone forever … [so] the passing of time becomes a difficult problem for Western thinkers. … In the Western mind, history is a series of nows that disappear forever, and, once gone, they cannot be changed or redone. The form of events is fixed forever by the passing of time.

In contrast. if we conceive time rhythmically, as Hebrews do, then the past can change. The previous moment of the rhythm still occurred, but the past exists and has its meaning only in relation to the continuation of the rhythm, only in relation to the present and future of the rhythm. The relation of one drum beat to the previous and subsequent beats determines the rhythmic meaning of any beat of a drum. Thus a present beat determines the rhythmic meaning of a past beat as much as the beats that came before determine the rhythmic meaning of a present beat. In rhythm, causation runs backward as well as forward.

If God lives in an eternal now where time is cyclical and rythmic, not static and linear as we see it, then turning back the clock is not the only way to make things right again. The drum beat of sin that occurred yesterday still exists, but its meaning is changed by the rhythm of Iearning and repentance created by subsequent beats. We don’t get to God by turning the clock back to reclaim the lost innocence of Eden. We get to God by going forward through a sometimes dreary but astounding world of learning and discovery. We are not here to be quiet, but to learn to make the beautiful music of endless creativity and life.

I think Wendy’s concept of God living in an ’eternal now where time is cyclical and rythmic ‘ such that the meaning of yesterday’s sins are ‘changed by the rhythm of learning and repentance’ of today is precisely what Elder Uchtdorf was trying to convey in his talk to the youth titled “Your Adventure through Mortality”.

One of the great innovators of our time, Steve Jobs of Apple, had this insight: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”

On that future day, you will look back on this cherished and exciting adventure of mortality, and you will understand. You will see that the dots really did connect into a beautiful pattern, more sublime than you ever could have imagined. With unspeakable gratitude, you will see that God Himself, in His abounding love, grace, and compassion, was always there watching over you, blessing you, and guiding your steps as you walked toward Him.

Thus it may be through the rhythms of a Zion people that our pasts are changed, and the future is brought to pass. Maybe the future is created by ’the rhythm of Iearning and repentance’ in our lives as we work with Christ’s accented beat. I found this definition of rhythm that fits well with our conversation.

Rhythm may be defined as the way in which one or more unaccented beats are grouped in relation to an accented one. … A rhythmic group can be apprehended only when its elements are distinguished from one another, rhythm…always involves an interrelationship between a single, accented (strong) beat and either one or two unaccented (weak) beats. (Cooper and Meyer 1960, 6)

God sets the accented beat that drives us into a future of His creation. Jesus, in Matthew 24:35, promised that His accented beat would endure; ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.’ Then our softer beat of a Zion people can join with Christ’s accented beat to create the rhythms of the future. In this rhythm, the past, present, and future are one eternal now that ‘connect into a beautiful pattern, more sublime than [we] could have imagined ‘ that will not pass away.

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