What’s Wrong with a Rabbit Hole?

This morning I started reading 3 Nephi 24, just the first two verses. I really do understand them, but for some reason I followed the footnotes and ended up on Bible Hub to see who had commented on them. That’s when I discovered that LeGrand Richards spoke about these verses repeatedly from about 1970 until one of his last talks in 1980.

Reading those talks was like walking through memory lane. Years ago, when I was in the process of returning to activity in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, someone invited me to a fireside where Elder Richards was speaking. At the time, it was simply a chance for me to hear more of the gospel I had begun to hunger for. I had no idea what a treat it would be.

By then Elder Richards was nearly blind, and spoke entirely from memory – no notes! He quoted scripture as though he were reading it from a page in front of him. It was astonishing. I remember sitting there not wanting the meeting to end. I wanted more.

This morning I read two of his talks about the last days—our days. In one of them he quoted Nahum 2:3–4:

“The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.”

Elder Richards then said something that made the scripture come alive. He suggested that it sounded remarkably like a description of automobiles—racing through the streets, lights blazing like torches, colliding and “jostling” against one another. His point wasn’t simply about cars. It was about prophecy and the “day of the Lord’s preparation.”

And here we are, living in that day.

Listening to him years ago—and reading his words again this morning—reminded me why I began loving the scriptures in the first place. That fireside awakened something in me. I left that meeting hungry for the word of God, and in many ways I have never stopped hungering.

I am still very much a beginner as a scriptorian, but the scriptures have become my lifeline. They comfort me, bring me peace, and remind me why I’m here. Like anyone, I’ve had seasons when life became busy—raising children in itself could fill every waking hour—but the desire for the words of the prophets never left me.

I still look forward to General Conference (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) the way many people look forward to Christmas. It renews me. It reminds me why we are here and what we should be doing.

I’m grateful for living prophets and apostles—especially our prophet today, President Dallin H. Oaks—who continue to point us to the Savior and help prepare us for what lies ahead.

All of that from reading the first two verses of 3 Nephi 24 this morning.

Not a bad rabbit hole to fall into. Bible Hub is awesome. The talk came from “Citations”

All of that from the first two verses of 3 Nephi 24. The scriptures have a way of doing that.