Recently I was feeling pretty good after extra jogging and I noticed my body felt stronger.  For some reason I thought of what someone else said about how having our bodies is like having control of our own little galaxy of atoms.   And for some reason I thought of the science fiction fantasy that someday transportation will advance to the point that our bodies can be broken down into pieces and all the information sent to some far off place and our bodies reassembled there, and then I compared that with the doctrine we’ve been given that when we are resurrected, we will receive our bodies again, glorified and never again to be divided from our spirit.

I started to think about what the implications of the doctrine of resurrection are as compared with that science fiction dream.  What do they both say about the importance of the body?

Science fiction fantasy, with its idea that the body can be broken down, information about it transported, and then reassembled again at some distant location, implies that atoms in one’s body are interchangeable and it is only the personality or soul essence that matters.  The body is not viewed as important.

But our doctrine that we will eventually receive our body back again and never be separated from it again implies that somehow it matters very much which atoms go back to which bodies.  In fact, if we were to speculate a little farther, we begin to wonder if maybe it is just as important to those atoms to get our spirit back as it is for our spirit to get our atoms back.  I don’t know how far we can push this notion because technically we gain and lose atoms and cells all the time, plus Jesus demonstrated that resurrected bodies can still eat, so it makes me wonder which atoms of all the ones that have been part of us will become part of our indivisible resurrection.  Yet it reinforces to me how important it is for us to treat these atoms well that happen to be part of our body’s galaxy.  It strikes me as a large responsibility to use the control I have over all of it as wisely as I can.  Atoms have their own intelligence (light and truth, photons and quantum knowing*), so they are good, and the system they form when working together is a temple.  When they are a part of me, these atoms can be enlivened by the Holy Ghost when I choose to do good things.  With Heavenly Father’s help I can make choices to subdue any sin that dwells in me and thus gain greater mastery over my atoms.  

Thinking about this, suddenly I have a lot of love for these atoms in my body.  The chance for me to be glorified is also a chance for them.  What a sad thing if I didn’t live up to that!

* Don’t assume I know anything about quantum theory while I make these statements.