If we follow our Latter-Day Saint theology that men and women are eternally equal partners, then, at least I believe, Heavenly Mother is just as equal a creator in the creation story as Her Husband. The image of Her watching while Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ created everything doesn’t seem to align with our belief of equality. This idea is supported by Elder Melvin J. Ballard, “No matter to what heights God has attained or may attain, he does not stand alone; for side by side with him, in all her glory, a glory like unto his, stands a companion, the Mother of his children. For as we have a Father in heaven, so also we have a Mother there, a glorified, exalted, ennobled Mother” (Sermons and Missionary Services of Elder Melvin J. Ballard, 205).
Furthermore, from the very beginning, in verses 3-5 of Genesis 1 we see the eternal need for opposites:
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Light and dark! Land and sea! Male and female! One no more superior than the other. It’s essential that we have both, thus I believe it’s essential Heavenly Mother was an equal partner in the creation of beauty and opposites.
We can even say we have evidence of her role in our creation in verse 26: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Did Heavenly Father say, “Let us make man in my image.” No, God said “Let us make man in our image.” I believe here He speaks to Heavenly Mother and Jesus Christ in this verse! We are created in Their image! Together!
I see Her so clearly in this chapter as a master scientist, a sculptor, an artist and Creator, and a Mother who knows our hearts perfectly. She is a Mother who loves us so impossibly deeply that She, Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ created this earth to be so breathtakingly beautiful just for us. Did they have to create mountains, paint sunsets, or give us beaches? No, but They did as an expression of Their love for us!
Just as She was there in the beginning, She will be there waiting for that mother-child reunion when we come home to Her! From Neal A. Maxwell, “When we return to our real home, it will be with the “mutual approbation” of those who reign in the “royal courts on high.” There we will find beauty such as mortal “eye hath not seen”; we will hear sounds of surpassing music which mortal “ear hath not heard.” Could such a regal homecoming be possible without the anticipatory arrangements of a Heavenly Mother?” (Ensign, May 1978, p. 10)
by Ashley Willis
Re-posted from His Certain Women.