Green Wood: Orson Pratt, Age 19, and the Call That Came Before the Seasoning

A couple of years ago I bought a stack of ash from a guy who mills his own lumber. The wood was fresh cut, still heavy with moisture. He warned me it would move as it dried and that I should sticker it and let it sit for at least a year before I tried to do anything serious with it. I knew he was right. I took a piece to the bench anyway. I jointed and ripped it, got it down to width, and started cutting joinery. By the next morning, the piece had twisted enough to throw my measurements off by a quarter inch. The wood was green and green wood does not wait. It moves while you are still figuring out what you are making.

Section 34 of the Doctrine and Covenants is a revelation to a young man who was, in a sense, green wood. Orson Pratt was 19 years old when this revelation came to him in November 1830. He had been baptized only a few months earlier. The Lord did not tell him to wait until he was seasoned. The Lord told him to go.

And I have sent mine everlasting covenant into the world, to be a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people, and for the Gentiles to seek to it, and to be a messenger before my face to prepare the way before me.

D&C 34:3

Orson Pratt Revelation Age 19 D&C 34

Orson Pratt was born in 1811 in Hartford, New York. He joined the Church in September 1830 after hearing the gospel from his brother Parley, who had already been called on a mission to the Lamanites. On November 4, 1830, about six weeks after his baptism, the Lord spoke through Joseph Smith and gave Orson what amounts to a personal commissioning.

The revelation runs twelve verses. It is direct and it wastes no words. The Lord tells Orson that he is called to preach the gospel, that he is to lift up his voice with faith, and that he will be blessed for his obedience. There is no preamble, no hesitation, no list of qualifications Orson must meet first. The call comes and the expectation is clear from the first verse.

Here is what I keep coming back to: Orson was the same age as a typical missionary today. He had no experience, no training, no track record. He had a testimony and he had a willingness to go. The Lord took that and built something out of it. Orson would go on to serve multiple missions, become one of the Twelve Apostles, and make significant contributions to Church education and scriptural study. But none of that was visible in November 1830. All that was visible was a 19-year-old who said yes.

Meaning of Preparing the Way for the Second Coming Scripture

The phrase "prepare the way" shows up in verse 3 and again in verse 6. The Lord tells Orson that the preaching of the gospel is itself the preparation. Every person who hears the message and responds is one more heart aligned with the coming of the Lord.

I think about this when I am working on a piece of furniture that will get a final finish. The surface needs to be prepared before the finish goes on. You sand through the grits, start at 80 and work up to 220. You clean the dust and wipe it down with a tack cloth, then check for scratches in raking light. The preparation takes longer than the application, and the quality of the finish depends entirely on the quality of the preparation. If you skip the prep, the finish shows every flaw.

Preaching the gospel is the sanding. It is removing the roughness, clearing the dust, getting the surface ready to receive something good. The Second Coming is the finish. The preparation matters because the finish does.

LDS Scripture About Being Called to Preach at a Young Age

The story of Orson Pratt has a particular weight for young members of the Church. It is easy to look at service in the kingdom as something that comes after you have your life sorted out. After school. After a career. After you have accumulated enough wisdom to be useful. Section 34 suggests otherwise. The Lord called a teenager with no resume and gave him a message for the world.

I have a son who is fourteen. He asked me once if he was too young to be helpful in his quorum. I told him about Orson Pratt, about the green ash I tried to rush, about how the Lord does not always wait for the wood to dry before He starts shaping it. I told him that being green means you are flexible, that you can bend without breaking, that the shape the Lord wants to put in you can still take hold because you have not hardened into a shape of your own making yet. He looked at me like I was saying something he already knew, which is probably the best you can hope for when you are talking to a teenager.

The White Field: Ezra Thayre, Northrop Sweet, and the Harvest That Won't Wait in D&C 33 covers a revelation given just a month before this one. It also emphasizes the urgency of the harvest. The Lord does not seem interested in waiting for ideal conditions. He sends laborers when the field is ready, not when the laborers feel ready.

How to Prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ LDS

Section 34 does not lay out a checklist for preparing for the Second Coming. What it does is connect the act of preaching with the act of preparation. When Orson Pratt opened his mouth to declare the gospel, he was not just teaching doctrine. He was building a road.

There is a practical side to this for people who are not full-time missionaries. Every conversation about the gospel, every act of kindness done in the name of Christ, every quiet decision to live more faithfully is part of the same preparation. You do not have to be on the road to be building it. You can be in your own ward, your own family, your own workshop. The work of preparation happens wherever faithful people are doing faithful things.

In When Esau Ran: The Unexpected Grace of Reconciliation in Genesis 33, we see Jacob and Esau meet after years of estrangement, and the preparation for that meeting happened in the wrestling and the praying and the long journey home. Preparation for something good often looks like ordinary obedience stretched over time.

Understanding the Call of Orson Pratt in Doctrine and Covenants

The revelation to Orson Pratt is a short section but it carries a specific kind of weight. It is addressed to one person, by name, for one purpose. There is no ambiguity in it. The Lord tells Orson what he is supposed to do, promises him help, and sends him out. That directness is part of what makes the section powerful. It is not a general sermon about missionary work. It is a specific command to a specific young man at a specific moment in his life.

I think that specificity is worth sitting with. The Lord knows each of us well enough to give a tailored commission. Orson got marching orders. Someone else might get a nudge toward patience, toward forgiveness, toward a different kind of service. The form changes. The fact that there is a commission at all does not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Section 34 so short compared to other sections?

Some revelations are general instructions for the whole Church. Others are personal commissions for one person, and Section 34 is the latter. It gives Orson Pratt the essential charge and the promise to go with it. The brevity is part of the point.

What does it mean to prepare the way for the Second Coming?

The phrase appears throughout scripture, but in this section the Lord ties it directly to preaching the gospel. Every person who hears the restored gospel and responds is one more heart prepared. The work of preparation happens person by person, conversation by conversation. It is slow work and it matters.

Does the Lord still call teenagers to important work?

Yes. Thousands of 18- and 19-year-old missionaries serve in the field every year, and young men and women lead in their quorums and classes. Section 34 is a scriptural precedent for the principle that age is not the deciding factor in who the Lord can use.

Is Orson Pratt's experience common for those called to the ministry?

Every call is personal, and the form varies. What is consistent is the pattern: the Lord calls people who are willing, regardless of their natural qualifications. The capacity comes with the commission. Orson Pratt was not qualified when he received Section 34. He became qualified by accepting it and moving forward.

What happened to Orson Pratt after this revelation?

He served multiple missions, was ordained an Apostle in 1835, and spent decades in Church leadership. He also became a respected mathematician and was a key figure in the early Utah settlement. The 19-year-old who received Section 34 grew into a man of significant influence, but the seed of all that growth was planted on November 4, 1830, in twelve direct verses.

Closing

That piece of green ash is still in my shop. I cut it down to a shorter length and let it dry properly. Last month I turned it into a small box. It held its shape this time. I thought about Orson Pratt when I was sanding it. The wood was ready because I waited. The Lord did not wait for Orson. He started working with the green wood and trusted the seasoning to happen along the way.

— D.