From Babylon to Zion: Taking the Savior’s Hand --- A picture study about leaving distraction behind, coming unto Christ, and learning to care for one another.
From Babylon to Zion: Taking the Savior’s Hand
A picture study about leaving distraction behind, coming unto Christ, and learning to care for one another.
During family home evening, I put this picture up and invited everyone to describe what they saw.
The conversation began almost immediately.
Someone noticed the Savior. Someone else noticed the people looking down at their phones. Others saw the man sitting beside the street, the woman in the wheelchair, the children gardening, and the people helping repair a home.
One picture opened the door to many lessons.
Before reading further, look at the picture yourself. Take your time. What catches your attention? Who seems alone? Who seems connected? Where do you see yourself?
The question running through the whole scene is this:
How do we get out of Babylon and into Zion?
At the center stands Jesus Christ, reaching toward someone who needs His hand.
The picture’s message
This is a symbolic illustration. It brings a modern city, the Savior, and a caring neighborhood together to help us consider two ways of living.
On the left, our attention is drawn toward business, advertising, possessions, and hurried activity. On the right, we see people giving their attention to one another.
Between them stands Christ.
The composition leads our eyes from distraction toward relationship, from isolation toward belonging, and from crowded pavement toward growing things.
The explanations that follow describe what is visible and offer possible scriptural meanings. They leave room for you to discover something more. A picture can invite reflection without every object having one fixed interpretation.
For the numbered study picture:
1 — The Savior in the center.
2 — The community on the right.
3 — Babylon on the left.
1. The Savior: taking the hand we cannot do without
Look closely at Jesus.
He is looking toward a man sitting on the pavement with a backpack. Their hands meet.
The man has not yet stood up. He is still at the curb. The Savior reaches him there.
That is a beautiful place to begin.
Sometimes we imagine we must straighten everything out before approaching Christ. Yet this picture reminds us that we can turn toward Him while we still need help.
Jesus said:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
—John 14:6
His position at the center points toward that truth. He shows us the way and makes reconciliation with God possible.
Paul wrote:
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
—1 Timothy 2:5
The next verse connects His role as mediator with His giving Himself for all. Our hope rests in His redeeming love.
Jacob gives us another powerful passage:
“The keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there.”
—2 Nephi 9:41
Others can teach us, encourage us, pray with us, and help us along the path. Our trust ultimately rests in the Savior Himself.
The meeting of hands in this picture makes that invitation personal.
What would accepting His hand look like in my life today?
Perhaps it would mean repentance. Perhaps forgiveness. Perhaps admitting that I need help. Perhaps finally acting upon something He has already been teaching me.
2. Zion: people making room for one another
Now look at the right side.
There is a modest home, a large tree, a garden, flowers, and flowing water. People are working, listening, comforting, and caring.
A woman leans toward an older woman in a wheelchair and holds her hands.
Nearby, a man has his arm around a woman whose posture suggests sorrow or distress.
People carry building materials. Others work near the house.
An adult gardens with children.
A family stands close to Christ.
These are ordinary activities, but together they suggest a community where people belong.
Fourth Nephi describes the life of a people converted to the Lord:
“And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free.”
—4 Nephi 1:3
Later, the record identifies the love of God in their hearts as the reason contention had ceased.
That gives us something practical to consider. A community’s spiritual condition becomes visible in how its people treat one another.
Who has enough to eat?
Who needs companionship?
Who needs help caring for a spouse?
Who has a home that needs repair?
Who feels forgotten?
Moses 7:18 describes Zion through unity of heart and mind, righteousness, and the absence of poverty among the people.
Those are things we can begin practicing in our own neighborhoods.
The wheelchair belongs in this picture
One of the most meaningful details is the older woman in the wheelchair.
She belongs within the loving community.
The illustration still includes aging, physical limitations, and the need for assistance. Someone has come close enough to hold her hands and give her attention.
What a lesson for us.
A person’s need for care never makes that person less valuable.
Those who receive help belong just as fully as those who provide it.
The woman being comforted nearby offers another reminder. A loving community makes room for grief. Sometimes our gift is simply to remain beside someone whose pain we cannot quickly remove.
Who would experience our faith differently if we gave them more of our time?
3. Babylon: plenty to look at, someone easy to overlook
Turn to the left.
Tall buildings rise above the street. Advertisements display beauty, possessions, and expensive cars. A suited speaker addresses a gathering behind glass.
Below, people move through the crowded street. Several look at phones.
At the lower left sits an older man beside blankets and belongings, with a dog close to him.
People pass nearby without visible engagement.
The troubling contrast is the abundance surrounding someone whose needs appear unnoticed.
A business, a city, a phone, or a suit does not tell us someone’s spiritual condition. Honest work and useful technology can serve good purposes.
The picture invites us to examine what captures our attention.
Can we become so absorbed in getting ahead that we no longer see the person beside us?
King Benjamin taught:
“And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor.”
—Mosiah 4:16
He then challenges the impulse to dismiss a suffering person as deserving that condition. He reminds us that we all depend upon God.
The man beside the street brings that teaching close.
Before judging his circumstances, have we noticed his humanity?
Before explaining why someone else should help, have we considered what we can do?
The church building among the towers
There is also a church-shaped building on the left.
That detail can prompt a searching question: Does our worship change how we treat the person outside?
The picture identifies no denomination. It gives us no basis for declaring that a particular congregation is wicked.
It does remind us that religious buildings can exist in the middle of a distracted society.
We can attend services, speak religious language, and still need to learn compassion.
Isaiah addressed people who practiced religious observances while failing to relieve the burdens around them. His words ask us to examine the relationship between devotion and daily conduct.
What Nephi helps us see
The tall buildings and elevated gathering may remind us of Lehi’s great and spacious building.
In 1 Nephi 8:26–28, its occupants mock those who have come to the tree. Nephi later identifies the building with the pride of the world in 1 Nephi 11:35–36.
This picture does not reproduce Lehi’s vision detail for detail. It does invite a similar question:
Whose approval directs my life?
Am I learning to follow Christ, or am I organizing my life around being admired?
Nephi also warns of becoming comfortable with the assurance that all is well in Zion while being led away through complacency.
—See 2 Nephi 28:21.
Comfort and prosperity do not remove our need for repentance.
Yet Nephi’s invitation is full of hope:
“He inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness.”
—2 Nephi 26:33
That invitation reaches every person in this picture.
The person sitting on the pavement needs Christ.
The person walking past needs Christ.
The person providing care needs Christ.
So do we.
The open book at His feet
Near the Savior’s feet lies an open book on a rock.
Its writing cannot be read, so we cannot identify it visually as a particular volume of scripture.
For this study, it can represent the word of God opened before us.
Notice where it rests: close to Christ, close to the person receiving help, and close to the community practicing care.
That arrangement invites us to connect reading with living.
We can study mercy and then forgive.
We can study generosity and then share.
We can study Zion and then help a neighbor.
The book invites a question we can carry into every scripture study:
What will I do with what I have received?
The water, the garden, and the light
A stream runs through the foreground between stones and broken pavement.
Plants and flowers grow beside it.
Above Christ, light breaks through the clouds.
These details can suggest renewal, hope, and the life He gives.
Jesus taught the woman at the well about living water:
“The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
—John 4:14
The stream offers a fitting place to reflect upon that promise.
The broken pavement can also invite us to consider how new life enters damaged places. Hearts, families, and relationships that have suffered can still receive healing.
This is an interpretation of the artwork, rather than a claim that every crack was originally designed with a particular meaning.
Isaiah describes something remarkably close
Isaiah 58 is a beautiful companion to this picture.
The chapter connects true devotion with freeing the oppressed, relieving burdens, feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor, and clothing those in need.
Then it describes light breaking forth, divine guidance, a watered garden, and rebuilding damaged places.
—See Isaiah 58:6–12.
Think about the picture again.
We see people giving care.
We see light.
We see a garden and water.
We see work being done on a home.
Isaiah helps us recognize these acts as part of a life turned toward God.
The work of love can involve a meal, a listening ear, a repaired porch, or patient companionship.
What the Nemenhah Records add
The following passages come from the supplied Ayahtkuhyaht Nemenhah, Complete Text—Second Edition, the PDF we use for our studies.
They are offered as teachings within the Nemenhah Records for comparison and reflection alongside the Bible and Book of Mormon. This study does not establish the records’ historical claims.
In The Second Book of Ahyahpahlehksihluhm 4:45, the text describes people working to provide for their households and freely sharing their surplus so that others can be fed and clothed.
It describes the intended result:
“There are no poor among the Nemenhah.”
—Printed page 695; PDF page 713.
That passage fits the cooperation pictured on the right.
People use their labor to provide for their own and contribute toward the well-being of others. Another household’s need matters to the community.
Verse 48 broadens the idea of healing:
“And also the Nemenhah are Healers every one of them.”
The passage includes healing people, animals, plants, families, communities, and the earth.
—Second Ahyahpahlehksihluhm 4:48, printed page 696; PDF page 714.
Look at the different gifts represented in the picture.
Someone offers comfort.
Someone gives care.
Someone repairs a home.
Someone tends growing things.
Someone teaches children.
Our gifts differ, but each can contribute toward healing.
Verses 50–51 add another valuable principle: seeking unity amid differences in language and custom while resisting the desire to dominate other people’s thoughts and hearts.
—Printed page 696; PDF page 714.
That raises an important question for anyone hoping to build Zion:
Can we work together in goodness while treating one another’s conscience with respect?
How do we actually leave Babylon?
The call to depart from Babylon appears in Isaiah 48:20 and is repeated in 1 Nephi 20:20.
Christ also repeats Isaiah’s call to depart from uncleanness in 3 Nephi 20:41–42.
These passages belong to larger teachings about deliverance, covenant, and gathering. They also invite us to examine what we need to leave behind.
A new address alone cannot change our loyalties.
We can begin turning toward Christ where we are.
We can acknowledge sin, seek forgiveness, receive His teaching, and allow Him to change our conduct.
Some steps may be very ordinary:
- Put the phone down and listen.
- Share a meal.
- Visit someone who is lonely.
- Help a caregiver.
- Repair something for a neighbor.
- Comfort someone without rushing their grief.
- Teach a child through patient, shared work.
- Ask God where pride or resentment needs to yield.
These acts do not purchase redemption. They can express our response to the Redeemer and the love He teaches us to give.
Notice that the right side of the picture still contains work.
People carry materials, tend soil, and care for others.
Our strength, time, abilities, and possessions can become instruments of love.
And when our strength is limited, we still belong. We can pray, listen, encourage, receive care, and allow others the blessing of helping.
Questions for family home evening
Begin by displaying the picture quietly. Let everyone notice something before offering an explanation.
Then ask:
- What do you notice about the Savior’s hands and posture?
- Which person might be easy to overlook?
- What are people giving their attention to on each side?
- What does the woman in the wheelchair teach us about belonging?
- How might the open book connect with the acts of service?
- What do the water and garden help you remember?
- Does anyone in this picture fall outside Christ’s invitation?
- Which act of care could our family practice this week?
Choose a few companion passages to read together:
John 14:6; 2 Nephi 9:41; Mosiah 4:16–19; Isaiah 58:6–12; and 4 Nephi 1:2–3, 15–17.
For those studying the Nemenhah Records, add:
The Second Book of Ahyahpahlehksihluhm 4:45, 48, 50–51.
Allow people to notice different things. The discussion can grow as family members listen to one another.
Whose hand have I been too busy to take?
That is the question I want to carry away from this picture.
The Savior reaches toward someone still sitting at the curb.
Around Him, people make room for one another.
As we receive His mercy, may we learn to make that mercy visible.
May our study lead to kindness.
May our prayers lead to willing service.
May we take His hand—and notice the person whose hand we can help hold today.
Prepared for The True Remnant Library.
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