Rest

Rest


On a beautiful Wednesday morning, we departed from the White House, completing our tour of the national treasures in Washington DC. The long and arduous schedule over the last 3 days was as exhausting as it was informative. I felt like breathing a sigh of relief but there was one last site to see before we hit the road again and continued our journey towards New York.
I saved the best for last. The level of excitement coursing through my veins reached a fever pitch. I was finally going to see what I had waited for my whole life, the Washington DC Temple.
The whole family was loaded into our rented brown Chevy Astro-van. As we cruised around a bend of the Washington DC Beltway, the glorious spires of the Washington Temple suddenly appeared. Jetting above the tree line in their majesty, it appeared as if a heavenly city was floating above the ground. Its divine beauty and radiant splendor seemed as though it had prepared itself just for us as a sanctuary from the world and waiting for our arrival.
When we finely got there, we strolled through the temple grounds, took pictures and basked in its grandeur. Being there on Wednesday at around noon, we found very few people there. We did not have plans to attend a temple session and discovered that the visitor center was closed for remodeling. We still hadn’t eaten breakfast yet, but we weren’t planning on staying long.
I decided to take a stroll around the perimeter of the celestial edifice and lovely temple grounds.
I walked around the back side of the Temple. There, on lower ground, I fond a secluded patio area encompassed by the landscape of greenery in all it varieties. It was secluded and serine. I felt like taking a moment out of the rush and enjoy the beauty and tranquility of the Lords House.
I was all alone.
I sat down on the concrete bench near the far edge. The winding nature trail behind me traversed its way through the brush until it could no longer be seen. I looked up at the magnificence of the temple and its spires, masked against the clear blue ski jetting upward towards heaven. I pondered on the eternal significance of it all.
As I did so, I could hear the sweet sounds of songbirds singing in the surrounding trees. I could hear the squirrels playing in the woods, scampering up and down the trees in their playful mood and rustling the leaves that lie on the ground. The peacefulness of nature filled my soul.
In this environment, something happened to me that I will never forget. I was temporally lifted up to a higher plane of existence. Suddenly, the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders and I didn’t have a single care, worry, trouble, responsibility, or obligation. I felt nothing but pure peace and rest. I sat there basking in the experience. I did not want to leave it. It was joy, it was happiness. It was peace and rest. I marveled at the total absence of care for worldly things. I pondered on my blissful state. I contrasted it with the continuous assault of earthly obligations from multiple roles that I play in my every day life. It is the contrast of the pain that is used as the tool to establish the Joy. Or as Lehi taught, put it,


“there must needs be Opposition in all things”… “otherwise”, there would be “no happiness no misery” (2 Ne. 2:11-15).

I Thought to myself, “this must be what the spirit world is like, no cares, no work, no worries, just pure peace, and happiness”. I immediately recalled Alma’s teachings to his son Corianton….

And then it shall come to pass that the spirits of those who are righteous are received unto a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all cares and sorrow.
(Alma 40:12).

There I sat, on a concrete bench, but more comfortable than I have ever been in all my life. I loathed the idea of returning to a world of driven intensity and constant rush. I wanted to stay there and enjoy it.
But still, way back in the recesses of my mind I knew that the rest of the family was impatiently waiting for me in the van wondering what I was doing. In my imagination, I could almost hear the shrill voices emanating from the vehicle. It sounded like,

“Where’s Daddy!!! Would some body go get daddy! We gotta get outta
here and get something to eat before we all starve to death!”

Reluctantly, the weight of my fatherly obligations brought me back to this earthly state and shook me out of my heavenly abode. I looked down at the ground and got a dose of mother earth to complete my journey back. I stood up, took a deep breath and exhaled. I looked around me one last time at the place that gave me peace, and a little glimpse of the eternal world. I hesitantly finished my circumspection around the temple grounds and headed back to the parking lot.
There is a day when the righteous shall rest from all their labors. Moroni write,

Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the chuch, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven.

I for one look forward to that day. But for now, there is so much more to be done. There is so much more to be done.