Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Mary Stone, a quick addendum to earlier post

 I had meant to add at the end of my last post this reference to 'Mary Stone' , but forgot in all of the rush to get it wrapped and posted in the short time window I had.


As I mentioned, this thought regarding Mary-Miriel started on Christmas Eve, and started occupying a significant amount of my thinking.  Later that same day, I was walking down the hallway and there sitting on the pony wall at the top of our stairs was my wife's Kindle with the following screen saver image:




Mary, like pretty much every other character in the Book of Mormon, and the Bible for that manner, is just known by her first name.  It is simply Mary.  Here, though, Mary is given a last name, and as luck would have it, it is "Stone".  Of course it would be.


The Stone here is relevant for a few reasons.  First, recall that Miriel's name means something like Jewel or Precious Thing.  Another word for jewel is gemstone, or a precious stone.  I would have actually seen this screen saver before I had started looking up names and definitions that I went through in my last post, so I would have made this connection later (not while looking at the Kindle sitting there).


Second, the Sawtooth Stone is relevant, as I see it, for Finwe and Miriel's family.  There are a number of things, charges, etc. that have been levelled at her family.  My belief is part of what the Stone will do is right past wrongs - that incorrect stories and false witnesses will be corrected.  When Isaiah says that Israel's sins "be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool", this may mean more than just forgiveness.  It may also mean that some things - sins - that are attributed to that House didn't happen the way we might all assume that they did.  Records and stories have been changed, and this hasn't usually been done to protect the innocent.  Just the opposite, in fact.


In the spirit of records, it should also be noted that Miriel herself, besides being known as a seamstress beyond comparison, also became involved in record keeping herself.  In one version of the story, after being allowed to come back to life, she went to the House of Vaire and there kept a record of the all of the Noldor's deeds.  The salvation of the Noldor (and of Israel) may lie in such stories and records.


With this in mind, it would not be out of the realm of possibility for Miriel to have a record that still exists in that House that she could also bring out again, in conjunction with the story from the Stone.  Multiple records are said to come forth at a future day, and I don't see any reason why Miriel's wouldn't be one of them.


In any case, I had to laugh at the Amazon customer review that they chose to highlight or the screen saver advertisement:  "A book you won't want to put down!  An ending you won't see coming!".  That is my hope, at least, for whatever stories come, whenever that is.

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