“Heavenly Father Knows Me,” For the Strength of Youth, Jan. 2022.
The Theme and Me
Youth share how they are living the words of the Young Women and Aaronic Priesthood Quorum Themes
Heavenly Father Knows Me
“I am a beloved son of God.”
When I was camping with my dad, we shared a moment I’ll never forget. We hiked up the side of a mountain late one night and found a spot to sit together. As we looked across the night sky, we were surrounded by the most brilliant stars I’d ever seen. We sat together for a long time, naming planets and constellations one by one.
Looking out at the universe in front of me, I felt pretty small and unimportant. I couldn’t even imagine how many other planets are out there—“worlds without end,” right? What was I compared to all that?
I asked my dad if there was other life out there in the universe, already feeling overwhelmed at the thought. He must have read my thoughts, because he simply said: “Here’s what I know. Heavenly Father has a lot of creations, as you can see. But of all His creations, He loves you individually.
“He sees everything you go through and wants more than anything to be a part of your life. He wants to bring you joy and help you get back to live with Him forever.”
I still felt small under the huge night sky, but I believed my dad’s testimony. I mattered to Heavenly Father. And He wanted to be in my life.
I remembered what President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, then-Second Counselor in the First Presidency, taught: “This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.”1
Like that starry sky, God’s creations are endless—but so is His love for each of His children. For each of us. Sometimes I think back to that moment when I sat on a mountain in awesome wonder. I might be nothing compared to God, but He doesn’t think that way. I’m His son, and He knows me.
The author lives in California, USA