The nature of an eternal family

Eternity has always been a concept that is a bit difficult for me to comprehend. I pretty much am okay with the part about there being no ending. Seems everything has to go on forever in one way or another. But I do find the “no beginning” part a little disconcerting.

When I was a little girl I used to sit and try to imagine if there was nothing. Just nothing. No God. No life. No Earth. No nothing. It was a very weird experience and I still remember very well how much I didn’t like that feeling. But it still seems like things should have begun somewhere, because it is just as hard (if not harder) to understand eternity stretching forever in the past as it is for there to be just nothing. But if there was never nothing, of course there is no beginning. It really does blow the mind.

But then I was thinking about my children. How ten years ago I had no idea that I would have these three daughters but now I can’t imagine my life without them. It’s a strange feeling…I know I didn’t have them, but it seems like they have been a part of me forever. Like I couldn’t possibly have existed without them, even though I really did.

I can’t imagine being without them. Ever. And that goes for the past as well as the future. And I think it helps me understand a little bit better what it means to say I have an eternal family. I don’t know really if I knew who my children would be before I came to this world, but I think maybe I did.

And now my mind is blowing a little bit more, but I just wanted to write that down so I could remember next time I read Joseph Smith’s writings on eternity. Because it isn’t quite as crazy as I once thought it was.