The brother of Jared notes that God is able to use great power, which can look small to men. He probably was thinking about his request to make the stones glow and realized that he might think it was a small and simple thing because he didn’t know what was required to do that, and maybe the thing he was asking for was more complex and required more power than he thought it would.

It shows us that we really don’t have much of an idea of how much power or effort it takes for God to do anything. We just know He has all power, and we just hope He will do for us the thing we ask. But maybe spending a little time thinking about what goes into granting us our petitions will help us appreciate the power of God more.

Another thing that comes to me is how easy it is to dismiss God when His power looks small to us. Yet we should know appearances are deceiving, and we are simply ignorant of His ways and means.  It’s like people who have never programmed a computer saying, “Yeah, programming that operating system should be no big deal.”

On a slightly different note, I like the type that is suggested in the brother of Jared’s request, “touch these stones, O Lord, with thy finger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness.” It’s very much what we should be asking for ourselves. Touch me, Lord, with thy finger and prepare me so I can shine forth in the darkness of this world.  Or, if we are going into a place in our lives where we can’t see the way, we can pray for the Lord to touch someone and prepare them so they can shine forth in our darkness so we can have light.