If I Forget Thee, O Jerusalem

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend a conference at BYU celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the dedication of the BYU Jerusalem Center.  I had the chance to participate in a study abroad program there many years ago, and so I was excited to reflect upon that experience and hear stories about the center.  The highlight of the event was to hear Elder Holland speak about the Jerusalem Center, for he played an integral role in it as the construction took place during his tenure as president of the university.  He spoke of the numerous significant miracles that took place and allowed the building to be constructed there despite intense opposition.  Elder Holland ended his remarks with this quotation from the Psalms: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy” (Psalm 137:5-6).  For us the importance of this verse I believe is the notion that we must remember not just the city itself but what took place there; we must remember that the Lord’s holy prophets preached there and that, most importantly, the Son of God ministered to the children of men there and underwent His great atoning sacrifice.  It was there that the Savior rose from the dead to break the bands of death for all mankind, and so it is no wonder that Jerusalem is a focal point for Christianity.  If we forget those events there, then yes indeed we should let our tongue cleave to the roof of our mouth.  Our chief joy should be Christ who walked the streets of Jerusalem in mortality.

                  As I have pondered what I remember about Jerusalem and my experience in the Holy Land, one particular day comes to mind.  We had gone as a class early one morning with our instructor to the garden tomb, the traditional location that many Christians believe is the place where Christ was laid to rest and resurrected.  We took the opportunity to meditate quietly as we pondered the events that transpired there or somewhere nearby 2000 years before, and then we listened to some thoughts from our teacher.  He spoke of the Savior, and the frequent invitation to come unto Him that we receive in the scriptures.  For example, one of the Savior’s most famous invitations is to come to Him: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).  Our instructor suggested that though we are to do everything we can to come unto Him, ultimately it is the Savior who must come to us.  We must seek with all our hearts to do those activities that invite Him into our lives—through prayer and fasting and obedience and the Sacrament and the scriptures and the temple and a yearning to commune with Him—but in the end we cannot force spiritual experiences and we must wait for Him to touch us in His own time and in His own way.  Just as at the empty tomb on that Sunday morning, as Mary Magdalene was there seeking Him, it was ultimately He who came to her. 

That thought has stuck with me all these years and the idea is important for me especially now as I feel I struggle at times to make the connection with the Lord that I would like.  The Lord suggested in this dispensation that indeed we must ultimately wait upon Him through our seeking: “Therefore, sanctify yourselves that your minds become single to God, and the days will come that you shall see him; for he will unveil his face unto you, and it shall be in his own time, and in his own way, and according to his own will” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:68).  We do all we can to come unto Him by sanctifying ourselves and becoming single to His glory, and then according to His own time He will come to us.  As He declared to Nephi before His birth so I believe He also says of us: “I come unto my own” (3 Nephi 1:14).