A Letter to My Sister About Discerning Truth

Dear ....

.... As you can see, I’ve sent you another bauble. I like baubles. They’re shiny and sparkly and catch the eye in a pleasing way. Do you remember the heart-shaped blue topaz I used to have? That was a beautiful bauble. It was real gold and a semi-precious gemstone (this one is a CZ with a colored metal chain). But more than that, the blue heart topaz was a token of God’s promise to me that everything was going to be all right, that He had not forgotten me even though I was going through a horrible time, and that he wanted me to be happy and to succeed at life.

I used to stare at it a lot, remembering that promise and thinking about Stuff. The flash and sparkle is more difficult to see on darker stones but this particular topaz was lighter and it sparkled a lot. It also had a top surface that reflected so clearly that if I focused it on a light bulb on the ceiling I could read the words written on the bulb stating wattage, manufacturer, etc. You can see that in this little bauble too. Set it on a flat surface and then look at the top plane. It will reflect and magnify the ceiling or whatever it is pointed at. Cool, huh?

Another interesting thing about reflections: look around the edges of this little golden CZ. It is difficult to get the nice clear picture that the top surface gives. All the little multi-sides, set off from one another, make great flashes but horrible reflections. They are sparkly and beautiful and eye-catching, but you can’t read light bulbs in them.

I told you I like baubles! Besides having that rainbow function of reminding me of God’s promise, they also have helped me define my concept of truth. The flash on a bauble comes from light reflecting off the cut planes on the stone. The planes are 3-D, and different angles catch the eye at different times. In fact, the flashes can come from opposite sides of the stone, or can come from parallel or perpendicular faces, or from any angle in between; however, without the core gem from which they are cut, nothing would flash, nothing would catch the eye.

To me, truth is the whole stone—the dull part on the bottom that rests in the setting, the central core from which the planes have been cut, the multi-faceted sides that are so scintillating as a whole and which can flash so brilliantly as singular planes.

To say that the “truth” is only one bright flashing light of one angle of the cut plane is to deny the beauty of the entire stone. It is my experience that a group of “experts” on any subject, including religion, can get together and argue the merits of their favorite “flash,” and ignore the whole or deny the existence of the equally brilliant reflection of light from another angle or another side. Or, they’ll try to “read the light bulb,” so to speak from the flashing facets, when you need the larger, calm surface to do that.

When others attack you or the Mormon faith or anything dear to you, ask which side of the gemstone they are looking at. The parts are not the whole and the clear reflection is not seen in the fire.

This is more difficult to explain than I thought it would be. If I didn’t make my point, I do hope that you like the bauble!