God Is a Great Shipbuilder

God is a great shipbuilder. At least three times he has directed major shipbuilding efforts. One of God’s ships carried Noah’s family through the flood and across the watery world until land was found again. A whole fleet of God’s ships protected Jared, his brother, and their family and friends as they crossed the ocean, driven before the wind for nearly a year. And another God-made ship, guided by a God-made compass, took Lehi’s family to the Promised Land.

In all of these cases, it doesn’t appear that God’s shipbuilding partners had significant maritime experience. They hadn’t been tutored by the great shipbuilders of the day. They hadn’t spent months at sea learning to manage rigging or repair leaks. They hadn’t studied physics or engineering. What they did know was how to trust God.

When Nephi began to build a ship, his brothers thought he was a fool. They had grown up with him. They knew he had never studied shipbuilding, and they weren’t very excited about trusting their lives to a boat built by their little brother.

But when God commanded Nephi to build a ship, his response was different. He didn’t say, “Who, me?” or “Ha, ha—good one.” or “Excuse me? I grew up in the desert, remember?” Rather, Nephi said, “Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship?” (1 Ne. 17:9).

Nephi’s answer wasn’t prompted by confidence in his own shipbuilding abilities. Rather, like his brothers, Nephi knew he was clueless about ships. But that knowledge was Nephi’s strength. Knowing he knew nothing, Nephi knew he would have to rely on God. And Nephi knew God would guide the ship’s construction because God had previously guided Nephi’s steps when he did not know “beforehand the things which [he] should do” (1 Ne. 4:6). With that faith and trust, Nephi could answer as he did.

And Nephi’s faith was rewarded. As he (and his brothers) built the ship, Nephi took careful direction from God all along the way. “We did work timbers of curious workmanship,” he says. “And the Lord did show me from time to time after what manner I should work the timbers of the ship. . . . And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things” (1 Ne. 18:1,3).

With that guidance from the Lord, Nephi was able to build a seaworthy vessel. It was like no other ship he or his brothers had seen before, for “it was not after the manner of men” (1 Ne. 18:2). No, it wasn’t a man-made ship; it was God-made, and it was “exceedingly fine” (1 Ne. 18:4).

We are not unlike Nephi. Like Nephi—and Noah and the brother of Jared—we have been commanded to do something we’ve never done before. But we are not commanded to build a ship, we are commanded to build a life, a God-like life. Like Nephi, we don’t know the first thing about what we’ve been asked to do. We haven’t experienced teenage years before we’re teenagers or parenthood before we’re parents or retirement before we retire. We constantly face new challenges in our lives. Sometimes it might be tempting to say to God, “What, me? You want me to do that? But I don’t have a clue!” But like Nephi, we need to respond with faith, telling God we will do it, with his guidance. And then we need to “go into the mount oft” and “pray oft unto the Lord” to learn how to build the timbers of our lives.

As we do this, we will notice that our lives take a different form than the lives of others, for our lives will not be built after the manner of men. Some might even say our lives are “curious.” But curious or not, they will be after the manner of God, and in the end, we will find that our lives have become “exceedingly fine,” for God is a great shipbuilder.