You Matter to Him

This entry is part of my general conference application series.

You Matter to Him, by Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Second Counselor in the First Presidency


Comparisons and contrasts are important in helping us understand certain concepts, yet they can be confusing in other situations. It may be helpful to understand how much money $1 trillion is, but being told how high a stack of $100 bills would go until $1 trillion were reached—while impressive—isn't entirely enlightening. Would it reach the moon? Does it really matter? (You can read more about here.)

Similarly, lying on your back under a clear night sky can make you feel incredibly small. You may even conclude that "man is nothing" (see Moses 1:10 for reference). But don't let knowing that your relative size compared to the universe is insignificant keep you from getting out of bed in the morning! Just because you are nothing (comparatively speaking) doesn't mean that you have nothing to contribute.

Or that you have nothing to aspire to.

Or that someone smaller than you doesn't think you're great!


I enjoyed the observation that "the number of stars within range of our telescopes is 10 times greater than all the grains of sand on the world’s beaches and deserts" here's the link to the article).


This observation reminds me of something I heard once. Regarding the Abrahamic covenant and the promise that his seed would be as "as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore," (see Gen. 22:17) it was said that the number is as the sand, but the quality is as the stars!

I wonder if President Uchtdorf was thinking something similar; speaking of the whole "man is nothing" thing, he said:

This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against the backdrop of infinite creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark of eternal fire burning within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise of exaltation—worlds without end—within our grasp. And it is God’s great desire to help us reach it.

Okay. This was all from the introduction to President Uchtdorf's larger address, but it's the part that hooked me; I'm still geeking out about it!

There are times when we feel small—even incredibly small. However, it's comforting to know that even if "man is nothing; yet we are everything to God." I'll let President Uchtdorf summarize powerfully:

In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters.

Did you get that? As I put it in my conference notes, "The universe was created for me!" Well, for you too, I guess. And for everyone else as well.

But I know I matter to the One who created it all!

Small as I am in comparison to the universe, I matter to Him.


And, yes, you do too!