I went to an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls a week ago Saturday with my wife and our son and daughter in law.  I am somewhat but not terribly familiar with the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls (how they were found what they represent etc.) and it was fascinating to learn more about them and see pieces (very small pieces) of the actual scrolls themselves.

When I consider the Scrolls and their origins at the small religious community of Qumran I am struck again at how throughout history much of humanity has expended enormous resources in time and treasure expressing their devotion to Diety.  I think for example of the churches we saw on our trip to Italy in tiny fishing villages--churches that must have consumed a large fraction of the inhabitants time and material wealth.

Then in the seeming blink of an eye that devotion has almost completely disappeared (at least here in the Western World) and has been replaced with a devotion to self.  Our time and money are spent in "self improvement," entertainment, or pursuit of wealth.  Truly as the Lord described in the first Section of the Doctrine and Covenants today "every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world."

With all desires turned inward our society becomes increasingly barren both literally, as fewer and fewer children are born, and figuratively as beauty slowly disappears from our surroundings.    Creation, the hallmark of the Creator, vanishes along with the Creator's influence.