You've drawn or seen the diagram hundreds of times. Missionaries draw it in chalk. We talk about it in Sunday School. It helps explain our existence and where we are going. But there's a crucial part to the Plan of Salvation that Mormons almost always forget.
The iconic circles of Mormonism. You know what they represent the moment you see them on a blackboard anywhere in the world. You have probably drawn those circles yourself more times than you can count. For those of you who don’t know, this diagram is a visual representation of God’s plan for his children.
It goes by several different names, many of which are straight from the scriptures:
• The Plan of Salvation
• The Great Plan of Happiness
• Plan of Redemption
• The Great Plan of the Eternal God
• The Plan of Justice
(For the sake of familiarity, we’ll go with Plan of Salvation for this post.)
A few years ago, I found myself listening to yet another lesson on the Plan of Salvation. We had methodically gone through the collective effort of labeling each of the circles, and discussing what they each represent. Standard Operating Procedure for a lesson on the Plan of Salvation.
As we were finishing up, I noticed that something was missing from the discussion.