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The morning of the first session of the Draper Temple Dedication Friday, 20 March was unseasonably perfect, with the earth still and hushed, the early sun spilling upon a scene where every detail had been immaculately prepared.
Few things in the world are handled with such exacting care as the building of a temple and the dedication that follows.
Buses are carefully orchestrated to assure ticket holders arrive where they must be. Chapels where the dedication will be beamed are cleaned and polished and become for that meeting alone, an extension of the temple. People who attend have been interviewed by their bishop. The choir has practiced for months and the director is passionate in urging them to their best.
Nothing is less than beautiful, practiced, reverent and joyful. The temple itself is a masterpiece of architecture, engineering and design, built to last 1,000 years, with maintenance schedules that have been rigorously developed to assure longevity.
The rugs are woven specially for some rooms, carved by a one-of-a-kind artist in others. Murals on the walls of ordinance rooms are lush and refreshing, inviting the viewer to peace.
Jim West, who served on the historical subcommittee, said, “I've been a contractor all my life, and I can say that this building is perfect. For instance, they took a 10-foot level along the chair-rail height of the wall to make certain that every sheetrock joint was exactly perfect, and if it wasn't, it had to be fixed.” President Gordon B. Hinckley himself used to walk through the temples before they were dedicated checking that every detail had been executed with excellence, every corner square, every miter joint right on.
Why take such trouble with the temples? It is because these temples are our offering to the Lord, our gift, our sacrifice that comes with our desire for His acceptance. Please accept our sacrifice, O Lord, and send thy Spirit to the temple. Let us cast aside the mundane, the tedious, the earthbound and feel thy presence in thy holy house.
Dedicating a temple for the Latter-day Saints, then, reminds us all what dedication of ourselves means. If we want to make a gift for the Lord of our broken hearts and contrite spirits, the effort to build a temple is a symbol of that for which we strive. To consecrate and dedicate ourselves to the Lord, we take the temples as our type.
On the Friday morning of the first Draper Temple dedication, the crowd had awakened early to be shined and polished themselves, and they were waiting, hushed in anticipation, for the event to begin.
Among the early arrivals were Richard and Kathy Barnes Walker. She is a daughter of President and Sister Hinckley and said, “We thought it would feel different today, but it doesn't.”
Most of the people in this first assembly were families who had teenagers singing in the youth choir, led by Becky Alexander. At only 180 voices representing 25 stakes, which is only about seven youth per stake, the teens knew they had a rare opportunity to sing during the cornerstone ceremony.
Click here to go to Part 2 of Now Let Us Rejoice
