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Holy Places Holy_Places_SATB_by_Daniel_Lee_Gibby
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I've had thoughts recently on writing a hymn about the temple. My first thoughts were about the home and temple being holy places. Because of various discussions at church, in bishopric meeting, as well as with my wife and the primary president, it has been on my mind in the last couple of months that those are two places that we have the greatest responsibility, and we know that they are meant to be holy.
During Fast and Testimony meeting I had partial thoughts for a couple verses of a hymn about the home and the temple being holy places. At home I finished the verses and realized that much of the words were inspired with multiple meanings.
In the 2nd verse at the end it says "Teach his children to be holy. Search them out in reverence." I originally was thinking only of teaching in the home and searching to take names to the temple, however, those words apply directly to missionary work as well. And then I realized how perfect that is. Missionary work and temple work are one and the same thing! One is on one side of the veil apart from us, but that doesn't change much, besides the mode for which the ordinances must be done. The temple is still the goal for the living and the dead, and the eternal unit of family is part of that.
At the beginning of the 2nd verse it mentions that Jesus came to a family: God's pattern on the earth. I meant this originally only to mean that Jesus also followed God's pattern of families. However, there is multiple meanings here as well. Not only did Jesus follow the pattern of families, he IS God's pattern on the earth to follow. The next line makes you wonder which meaning I intended since it says He showed the way. Again, it could be talking about both meanings there.
In the 3rd verse I meant for it to mean the temple all the way through, but it can also mean chapels as we come to learn the gospel. So another holy place could be interpreted. Missionary work is a possible meaning (but in our own lives), with others we bring, as well as when we go to learn at the temple. I was thinking of the temple when in the last refrain it says Sing hosannas, instead of just sing aloud. I wanted to mention Hosanna related to the temple because of the Hosanna shout at each temple dedication. Hosanna means "Save us" in Hebrew.
Of course the last sentence refers to the temple, but it refers to both to the living and the dead: "Gather quickly to his temple: Bring our family home again." Not only should we bring our own living family relationships and be sealed in the temple, but we also have the responsibility to bring God's whole family, everyone, to the gospel and the goal should be the temple as well as improving our own lives in homes.
The whole goal of God's plan isn't about some specific place, but in what we become - which is eternal life through God's plan and covenants through Jesus Christ.