The Allegory of Zenos or “I’ve Been Pruned”

On Sunday I snuck into the Fireside at the tail end of the Mid-Singles Conference. I didn’t really have much interest in the Conference as a whole, but the speaker for the Fireside is a man I greatly admire and have learned from him at every encounter. His name is Brother Nyles Salmond and he was the director of the Seattle LDS Institute of Religion which is where I met him. I had the opportunity to take a number of classes from Brother Salmond while attending the UW as an undergrad. I had a very good idea what to expect from this man, and I was not let down.

Brother Salmond spoke of the hardships we face today and the trials that we are individually called to go through. At the time I recall thinking that life wasn’t so bad. I have things pretty good right now with no major complaints. I feel happy, I have family and friends close by, I have a job I love, life is pretty good. Then I felt a slight sense of foreboding. The ‘life is good’ feeling never remains for long. Life continues to change and with it both the good and the bad will come and go.

I’m getting ahead of myself.

Brother Salmond likened this to the Allegory of Zenos found in Jacob Chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon. For those who may be unfamiliar with this it tells the story of a vineyard where the master discovers his tame olive tree is beginning to decay and does all that he can to save it. There are 4 specific ways in which the master works to save his tree: pruning, digging, grafting, and dunging. Many members of the Church are familiar with this allegory and its standard interpretation of the House of Israel, but instead Brother Salmond pointed out other things we can learn from the allegory.

At this point I will pause and remind you of a story told in the Church of a man who was due for a promotion. During the interview for the possible promotion he is asked if he is Mormon and ultimately loses the promotion because of his affiliation with the Church. The unfairness of it all hurts this man and he asks God why. He deserved this promotion and had worked hard for it and had now been denied it. I forget the specifics of the story but basically what happens is the man sees a tree and realizes that a gardener knows exactly what this tree is supposed to be. With proper pruning and the skill of a master gardener it will occasionally need to be cut back so it can grow into what the gardener knows it is capable of.

This is where I will come back to the tame olive tree. The lord of the vineyard had to prune his tree. It had to be cut back. The same is in our lives, our own Master sees fit to prune us and cut us back so that we can be molded into what our Savior knows we are capable of. Then Brother Salmond pleaded with us to accept our pruning and move our lives along the path the Lord has for us.

Brother Salmond went on to talk of the 3 other ways to save the tame olive tree. The ‘digging about the tree’ is the Lord changing our environment, the grafting in of the wild olive tree, and then the dunging for nourishment. I wish I had taken notes and could better remember his comments, but the pruning is what stuck out to me the most.

Last week life was good. This week life happened and I’ve been pruned. It hurts. However I am grateful I went to that fireside so now whenever I think I do not want to deal with this I hear Brother Salmond’s loving words in my mind to ‘accept our pruning’. The Lord obviously has other ideas in mind for my life. It’s now up to me to accept that and move along the path He has laid out for me.