milk & honey mamas

Story contributed by Kristen

I beheld a tree whose fruit was desirable to make one happy. 1 Nephi 8:10

1 Nephi 8:10

“Behold I have dreamed a dream, or in other words I have seen a vision” (1 Nephi 8:2). Dreams and visions center the stories that open the Book of Mormon volume. In some ways, Lehi’s words prefacing his dream of the tree of life serve also as a preface to the whole book, and to the impetus that brought Lehi’s family from Jerusalem. They are also a clue as to the epistemology operating in these stories: Dreams and visions are sources of theological knowledge. Lehi is known as a “visionary man”; it appears that this ability is part of his prophetic mantle. 

But the dream world is not always rational. It is usually deeply symbolic, coded with layers of meaning. Joseph Smith, who was also a visionary man, would easily sympathize with this sort of mystical knowledge base. But Joseph’s world, in the highly rational frames of the enlightenment, would struggle. The later coding chapter, where an angel explains this dream to Nephi, is more comfortable to those of us who crave maps, sign-posts, and clear definitions. We want to know the explanation of the dream, the intention and purpose. We want to unlock it and translate its symbols. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but I’d like to invite us back into the muddy mystical for a moment. 

We begin the Book of Mormon with family conflict and tension. And then, with a dream. At the center of the dream, a tree, with obstacles on the path toward it. And the tree, Lehi senses, represents joy. According to Nephi’s interpretation, this joy is a fullness of divine love.

Julian of Norwich dreamed of the world as an acorn in the gentle hands of God. She dreamed the plight of humanity as a man fallen into a pit, and the master filled with compassion.

Terese of Avila saw a castle, with many layers winding to the heart wherein resides the pure love of Jesus. 

Howard Thurman saw an island amidst a sea, guarded by an angel with a flaming sword.

And Lehi saw a tree.

The settings and symbols are different, but the meaning in these mystical visions is consistent: love.

Understanding Lehi’s dream at the table of the mystics changes how I read the rest of the dream. The center, the heart of the story, is the love of God. The people in the story strive to reach it. Is the path straight and narrow because God’s love is conditional or because our world blinds us to the reaches of effulgent light? Is the great and spacious building filled with prideful dissidents who just don’t get it, or with wounded journeyers who cannot fathom that love could reach even to them? Is the rod of iron the strict and unyielding word of God, or the fleshy reach of an unrelenting hope?

I think, among many other possible readings, that this is a story about love. About the struggle to get to it, the barriers that come to block and obscure it, and the hands that reach out to pull us toward it. Because of this, I believe the tree of life is at the heart of the whole beautiful, tragic story that will follow. The tree at the center convinces me that the story of God and their beloved creation is, at last, a love story.

Ideas for Play

Contributed by Kristen

• Listen to the Book of Mormon storybook chapter on the tree of life on audible!

• Read the actual text of the Book of Mormon aloud. You can paraphrase/condense/edit as you go, but this is a great way to get your children familiar with the sound of scripture and to get a layout of the story.

• Act it out!

• The tree of life could be a plant with lights on it

• The darkness could be simulated with a blindfold (sound effects from your favorite music app would add extra drama!)

• The path could be pillows or pieces of paper – or maybe you’re doing all of this outside!

• The iron rod could be a rope, blankets, or your arms

• Explore the different elements of the story, paying attention to what your child is interested in!

• Watch the Book of Mormon video of Lehi’s dream

• Explore your family’s iron rods. What are the things you hold on to? Make a family map/traveling guide.

Music

Compiled by Caroline

Tree of Life, Nefesh Mountain

The Tree of Life, Shawnee Edwards

Art

Compiled by Caroline

Poetry

Compiled by Caroline

Fire on a rock

by James Dewey

Fire on a rock

trembled Lehi like a tree

chased him home

collapsed him

tormented his rest

split heaven down the middle

and the Noonbright One

with twelve stars in tow

fire on a rock

shook mercy from a book

wrung hope from ripe words

insisted Lehi run amok

among his wreck-bound neighbors

with a raw heart ballooning

toward Redemption Island

where Messiah spirals higher

like a Rock on fire