Current Lessons
Lesson No. Twenty-Eight

The Tree of Life and Mother’s Day

The Navajo tree of life rug – During the recent two-week closure of the Jordan River Temple Susan and I took a road trip through Navajo lands in Arizona and New Mexico.  In Gallop New Mexico we visited the Richardson Trading Post were we purchased a hand-woven Navajo tree of life rug as a Mother’s Day gift for a most remarkable mother.   We were drawn to the tree of life motif because we love the meaning of Lehi’s and Nephi’s vision of the tree of life recorded in 1 Ne. 8, 11, respectively, and also because it reminds us of the importance of mothers who give life to and nurture their children.

The tree of life is evidence of the divinity of the Book of Mormon – The symbol of the Tree of Life is found in many cultures, ancient and modern, and they all have a common source.  Most people have little understanding of what took place in the Garden of Eden, but we are blessed that the Lord has revealed the true meaning of the Tree of Life, and it is evidence of truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Wilford Griggs wrote:   “The Book of Mormon brought the tree of life to our attention long before modern scholarship revealed how common the tree was in ancient history. The symbol of that tree pervades the art and literature of every Mediterranean culture from centuries before the time of Lehi until well after the time of Moroni. This fact, and the fact that Lehi and Nephi portrayed the spiritual meaning of that symbol much the same way other ancient cultures portrayed it, demonstrate that the Book of Mormon is an ancient text….” (The Tree of Life in Ancient Cultures, Ensign, June 1988).  The tree of life was used in the coronation of Britain’s king Charles III on 6 May 2023. 

The Book of Mormon teach what God wants us to learn from the symbolism of the tree of life:

1.      The love of God (1 Ne. 11:21-22) which Lehi and Nephi made clear is manifest in the life, ministry, and atonement of Christ.  The tree is described as possessing beauty that “was far beyond, yea, exceeding of all beauty” (1 Ne. 11:8), and being “precious above all” (1 Ne. 11:9).  Its fruit “was desirable to make one happy,” “most sweet above all” (1 Ne. 8:10-11), “most precious and most desirable above all other fruits…. [and] the greatest of all the gifts of God” (1 Ne. 15:36).

2.      The tree of life in the Garden of Eden represents an essential part of the plan of salvation:  Alma spoke of this tree in explaining the need for mortals to have the opportunity to repent and prepare to meet God.  (See Alma 12:21-36; Alma 42:2-6)  The temple also teaches of the tree of life.

3.      The tree of life grows from faith in Jesus Christ:  In Alma 32-33, Alma compares the word of God to a seed that is “planted” in the heart of an individual (Alma 32:28).  This seed, if properly nourished with “faith with great diligence, and with patience” will become a “tree of life” or “everlasting life” (Alma 32:40:41; 33:23), having fruit “which is most precious” (Alma 32:42; also Alma 5:34; see also Book of Mormon Reference Companion).  The temple from beginning to end teaches of Christ  

4.      We should delight in the many additional evidences of the Book of Mormon, but a testimony of its divinity comes only by the power of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 10:3-4).  We can know by personal revelation “that the Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book” (Introduction to the Book of Mormon).  This makes the Book of Mormon not only the most correct, but also the most important and precious of any book on earth.

Testimony – The tree of life reminds us of love of God as manifested in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  “Wherefore, my beloved brethren [and sisters], pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ” (Moroni 7:48). 

The tree of life also reminds us of the importance of mothers who give physical life to their children, and the mothers, and other faithful women, like the mothers of the 2,000 stripling warriors, who plant the seeds of spiritual life in those they love and teach “that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them” (Alma 56:47).