Tipping the Scales

Every time I read 2 Nephi chapter 2, I'm surprised by how much is jammed into one chapter! But what stood out to me the most this time around, was the importance of Man.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion . . over all the earth . . ." (Genesis 1:26)

In the Genesis creation accounts, God is able to speak things into creation, and land and time and animals are formed as He will. But, when it comes to mankind, God is particular about how He goes about it. Instead of commanding them into existence, He goes down and creates them after His own image. Man kind is no beast or accident of evolution, as some creation stories my say - we are the center piece to all that was formed for this earth.

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so . . . righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness. . .Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation." (2 Nephi 2:11-12)

Lehi understood the purpose of the fall of man better than most people do today. Life is a giant scale - on one side sits our trials, and the other sits our blessings. We can only receive the blessings after the trial of our faith, but when we chose to face our trial the Lord's way, there will be an equal and opposite reward. That being said - image if Adam and Eve had stayed in Eden. Never knowing right from wrong, trial nor blessing. Their scale would forever remain balanced - but it would forever be empty.
God did not create us to sit around with empty scales for all of eternity. We are here on this earth for the purpose of trying to better ourselves, and that can only be done through trial, error, and continual faith. If we continually chose to turn to Christ in our times of fear and pain and heartache, He will be there to help us time and time again. His atonement has already tipped the scales in our favor.