Paul speaks of man's divine origins
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One of the age-old questions is, "Where did I come from?"
At the April 1988 general conference, President Thomas S. Monson of the First Presidency said that this query is inevitably thought, if not spoken, by every parent or grandparent when a tiny infant utters its first cry. "One marvels at the perfectly formed child," he said. "The tiny toes, the delicate fingers, the beautiful head, to say nothing of the hidden but marvelous circulatory, digestive, and nervous systems all testify to the truth of a divine Creator.
"The Apostle Paul told the Athenians on Mars' Hill that we are 'the offspring of God.' (Acts 17:29.) Since we know that our physical bodies are the offspring of our mortal parents, we must probe for the meaning of Paul's statement. The Lord has declared that 'the spirit and the body are the soul of man.' (D&C 88:15.) It is the spirit which is the offspring of God. The writer of Hebrews refers to Him as 'the Father of spirits.' (Heb. 12:9.) The spirits of all men are literally His 'begotten sons and daughters.' " (D&C 76:24.)
President Monson said that inspired poets have written moving messages and recorded transcendent thoughts about the divine origin of mortals. He quoted William Wordsworth, who, in "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood," wrote:
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
"Parents, gazing down at a tiny infant or taking the hand of a growing child, ponder their responsibility to teach, to inspire, and to provide direction," President Monson said.
