by Kari McClelland

It is during the holiday season that we feel the pull of home most strongly. We long to be with family and to have the safety and security that can only come from within the walls of our home. Though we are now temporarily separated from our Heavenly Father and our eternal home, the Lord has placed His house upon the earth for us—the temple.

Symbolically, the temple is a haven of spirituality, a sacred place of prayer, teaching, and learning where those who have “clean hands, and a pure heart […] shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation” (Psalms 24:4-5).

The temple has always served as the house of the Lord on earth. Throughout the earth’s history, it has been a symbol and promise that the righteous can commune with God and return to His presence if they keep the covenants and ordinances they have made with Him.

As the Lord promised Solomon in 1 Kings 9:3, “I have hallowed this house, which thou has built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.”

Following the cleansing of the temple, Matthew 21:14 records that “the blind and the lame came to [Jesus] in the temple; and he healed them.” Indeed, the Lord has worked and continues to work in His temples.

Even as a child, Jesus knew and recognized the temple as His home. After separating from Joseph and Mary while in Jerusalem, Luke 2:46 states, “And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple.”

Across the ocean, the Nephites also knew of the importance of the temple as a symbol of their devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ and the means whereby they could worship and receive revelation from the Lord. Jacob, one Nephite prophet, understood the sacred nature of the temple and sought to teach his people the “words as [he] taught them in the temple, having first obtained [his] errand from the Lord” (Jacob 1:17).

The temple is a place of spirituality, learning, beauty, and majesty. Answers to prayers can come within its holy walls and even on its grounds, for the temple is symbolically and literally the Lord’s home.

We can find joy in serving in the temple. As the Lord said in Isaiah 56:7, “even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer.”

This blessing of the temple as a sanctuary in which we can find other-worldly peace is, to me, the greatest symbol of the gospel and one of the greatest gifts that Heavenly Father has given us. As Doctrine and Covenants 97:15-16 states, “Inasmuch as my people build a house unto me in the name of the Lord, and do not suffer any unclean thing to come into it … my glory shall come upon it; Yea, and my presence shall be there, for I will come into it, and all the pure in heart that shall come into it shall see God.”

The temple is a symbol of the gospel of Jesus Christ that brings to mind peace, eternal blessings, pure knowledge, and spiritual purity. In the temple, each worthy child of God can receive revelation and a feeling that they are “home” and are progressing towards the day when Heavenly Father will welcome them back to their eternal home.

Kari McClelland is a member of the Seven Hills Ward, Anthem Stake.