Where did the Liahona come from?

Seriously, where did the Liahona come from? (I’m talking about the directional ball with pointers, not the Church magazine.) From 1 Nephi 16:10:

…My father arose in the morning, and went forth to the tent door, to his great astonishment he beheld upon the ground a round ball of curious workmanship; and it was of fine brass. And within the ball were two spindles; and the one pointed the way whither we should go into the wilderness.

I know that God could have created it Himself, but it seems to make more sense to me that a mortal made it.

I get a kick out of thinking about a humble, spiritual brass-smith. He’s sitting in his workshop one night, inspired to make this odd round ball, and to put two little spindles inside it. His wife comes in and says, “What is that for? What does it even do?” and he can’t answer here. He feels much the way Mormon feels at a later time:

And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will. (Words of Mormon 1:7)

He even adds a little blank space for words that can change from time to time (see 1 Nephi 16:27-29). Then he puts it away, because he really doesn’t know why he made it. Years pass. One day he goes to look for it and it’s gone!

He never knows what happened to it, he never knows that it leads Lehi’s family to the Promised Land, he never knows that it becomes a symbol of faithful following of the Lord’s commandments. But he’s blessed because he followed the inspiration of the Lord.

I suppose this little story could be a parable to teach us to cheerfully follow the Lord’s will even when it doesn’t make complete sense to us. But, really, I just like thinking about my imaginary faithful brass-smith!

(I wrote this three years ago for our (now mostly dormant) religion blog, PonderIt)