I Saw No Temple Therein

A few days ago, I asked my younger children to draw a picture for their mother as part of a card for our wedding anniversary. I gave them some suggestions, telling them to draw our family or a temple. My seven-year-old son thought about this for a bit and then asked, “Dad, what’s more important? Family or temple?” I thought it was a very good question. As I started to say something about how they are both important he answered it himself, saying, “I think it’s family.” As I pondered his question and answer, I was reminded of a scripture from John’s vision of the earth in its immortal and glorified state, after “a new heaven and a new earth” came. John recorded, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” (Revelation 21:1, 22-23). I believe that what John was seeing was that at some future day, the work of temples will be complete and there will be no more need of them because the Savior will dwell directly with His people. The student manual puts it this way: “There is no need of temples in the Holy City because all of the celestial kingdom will be as a temple; God Himself and Jesus Christ dwell there.” As crucial as temples are for us in mortality, their purpose of enabling God’s children to make covenants with Him and binding families together will one day be fulfilled. Temples, as a part of the Church, are a part of the “scaffolding” which “helps build the individual and the family” as summarized by President M. Russell Ballard (who was quoting President Harold B. Lee). Knowing that temples will at some future day after the Millennium cease to exist, the title of President Ballard’s talk definitively answers my son’s question: “What Matters Most Is What Lasts Longest.” The family, through the ordinances of the temple, can last forever and much longer than the temple itself. As I once heard Elder Allan Packer put it in a stake conference, “Do you ever keep the scaffolding once the building is finished?” Of course, the answer is no, and the purpose of the Church and temples will one day be complete and the “scaffolding” will no longer be needed.

                Understanding this insight from a seven-year-old, the emphasis in recent years on temples by President Nelson should remind us that as we strive to spend more time in the house of the Lord to bless our family from generations past, we should also focus on strengthening our own living family and strive to spend more time with them. The family proclamation connects the family and temple this way: “The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.” We have the temple and its ordinances in order to bless families and bind them together forever. Just as the Savior spoke of the Sabbath, we might say, “The temple was made for families and not families for the temple.” It is telling that in the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, the first in our day, Joseph was inspired to pray these words, “O Lord, remember thy servant, Joseph Smith, Jun., and all his afflictions and persecutions…. Have mercy, O Lord, upon his wife and children, that they may be exalted in thy presence, and preserved by thy fostering hand” (Doctrine and Covenants 109:68-69). He prayed for blessings on his family. Temples should be a strength to our families, and we should strive to make our service there bless both the living and the dead. President Ballard finished his talk with these powerful words: “Brothers and sisters, as we hold up like a banner the proclamation to the world on the family and as we live and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will fulfill the measure of our creation here on earth. We will find peace and happiness here and in the world to come. We should not need a hurricane or other crisis to remind us of what matters most. The gospel and the Lord’s plan of happiness and salvation should remind us. What matters most is what lasts longest, and our families are for eternity.”

It was my daughter who ended up drawing the picture I requested, and indeed she drew one of our family. The problem was that she didn’t include me in it from what I can tell, so perhaps it was a sign for me that I have work to do to focus more on my own family!