{"id":108202,"date":"2024-12-07T08:50:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T15:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=108202"},"modified":"2024-12-08T22:36:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T05:36:06","slug":"heaven-could-not-hold-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2024\/12\/heaven-could-not-hold-him.html","title":{"rendered":"Heaven Could Not Hold Him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Christmas<\/a>
The Accra Ghana Temple in December 2006
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Christmas season is a busy one. \u00a0Especially, perhaps, in the United States, where commercialism drives both it and us, and where it falls during a frenetic period known as \u201cthe holidays,\u201d preceded by Halloween and Thanksgiving and succeeded by New Year\u2019s Eve and New Year\u2019s Day (to mention only a few of the festivities). \u00a0It\u2019s easy to lose track of what\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n

One way, perhaps, of staying focused, is to make sure that we attend the temple at least once during this period. \u00a0(Which is rendered somewhat more difficult than it usually is by holiday-reduced temple schedules, school vacations, and holiday-increased demands on our time.)<\/p>\n

In support of my point, more or less, I invoke\u00a0Truman Madsen<\/a>, who died in 2009 and whom I greatly miss. \u00a0He changed the direction of my life at a crucial stage, when I was a high school student in California. \u00a0I probably would not have attended Brigham Young University absent a particular encounter with him. \u00a0I had him as a teacher when I arrived at BYU. \u00a0Eventually, he became a faculty colleague, and then a friend. \u00a0Although, owing to the politics of the region, I haven\u2019t been back to Jerusalem since November 2022, I\u2019ve typically visited the city at least once annually for years now \u2014 where, among other things, I taught for nearly six months on the faculty of BYU\u2019s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies during a period when Truman Madsen was serving there as the Center\u2019s director.<\/p>\n

Here are two passages from a devotional address entitled \u201cFoundations of Temple Worship\u201d that Truman delivered at the Idaho campus of Brigham Young University in October 2004:<\/p>\n

President McKay asked for a million dollars from the local saints, and had pledge cards before the meeting was over for that amount, plus. Then he spoke about the temple. I\u2019ll spare you the details except for the core statement that I have cherished, and which bent, as it were, the twig in me, which has grown and grown ever since.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cBrothers and sisters, I believe there are few, even temple workers, who comprehend the full meaning and power of the temple endowment. Seen for what it is, it is the step-by-step ascent into the eternal presence. If our young people could only glimpse it, it would be the most powerful spiritual motivation of their lives.\u201d I resolved that day, because of what happened in my heart, always to raise my voice in testifying of the temple and never of criticizing it, to carry out as best I could my dream of finding a queen who would share in me the total conviction that the temple is ours, made for us and prepared for us, and that out of that could come a family who would love the Lord Jesus Christ as nothing else in the universe. . . .<\/p>\n

The fulness of truth, and the fulness of the Holy Ghost, and the fulness of the priesthood, and the fulness of the glory of the Father are all phrases that are ocurrent in connection with the temple, and cannot be received anywhere else, nowhere else on the planet. You cannot receive the fulness that the Lord has for you without coming through the temple and having the temple come through you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In attending the temple, we serve others. \u00a0We do for them what they cannot do for themselves. \u00a0And that is precisely what the Savior did, for all of us, in coming to this earth. \u00a0Service in the temple ranks among the most Christ-like things that we can do.<\/p>\n

\"Rossetti<\/a>
\u201cEcce Ancilla Domini\u201d (\u201cBehold the Handmaiden of the Lord\u201d), or \u201cThe Annunciation,\u201d by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The model for Mary (except for her red hair) was the artist\u2019s sister, Christina Rossetti. The painting dates to 1850. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Thursday, my blog entry here was already so very long that I chose not to include a favorite piece of Christmas music for that day. \u00a0But I compensate for that today by offering two<\/em>:<\/p>\n

The first is Gustav Holst\u2019s famous 1906 setting of a poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). \u00a0The poem has two weak points, in my estimation \u2014 apart, of course, from the fact that Jesus almost certainly wasn\u2019t<\/em> born \u201cin the bleak mid-winter\u201d: \u00a0First, repeating \u201csnow on snow\u201d twice seems unimaginative to me. \u00a0Second, so does the vague \u201cif I were a wise man, I would do my part.\u201d \u00a0(I\u2019ve made the offer before, though, and it still remains: \u00a0Can anybody else out there improve on these passages?) \u00a0However, \u201cwhat I can I give Him, Give my heart\u201d is wonderful. \u00a0And the second stanza (\u201cheaven cannot hold Him Nor earth sustain, Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign,\u201d matched by the contrasting \u201cA stable-place sufficed The Lord God Almighty,\u201d is simply magnificent.<\/p>\n

Here are the lyrics of the Holst arrangement (which omits at least one stanza of Christina Rosetti\u2019s original) as performed by the Tenebrae Choir, under the direction of Nigel Short<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

In the bleak mid-winter
\nFrosty wind made moan;
\nEarth stood hard as iron,
\nWater like a stone;
\nSnow had fallen, snow on snow,
\nSnow on snow,
\nIn the bleak mid-winter
\nLong ago.<\/p>\n

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him
\nNor earth sustain,
\nHeaven and earth shall flee away
\nWhen He comes to reign:
\nIn the bleak mid-winter
\nA stable-place sufficed
\nThe Lord God Almighty \u2014
\nJesus Christ.<\/p>\n

Enough for Him, whom Cherubim
\nWorship night and day,
\nA breastful of milk
\nAnd a mangerful of hay;
\nEnough for Him, whom Angels
\nFall down before,
\nThe ox and ass and camel
\nWhich adore.<\/p>\n

What can I give Him,
\nPoor as I am?
\nIf I were a Shepherd
\nI would bring a lamb;
\nIf I were a Wise Man
\nI would do my part,
\nYet what I can I give Him,
\nGive my heart.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That stable, years ago, was a temple. \u00a0Seriously. \u00a0Given the literal presence in it of the Lord himself, what else could it have been?<\/p>\n

The second of my Christmas favorites for today is \u201cO Holy Night,\u201d which was originally composed in French. \u00a0The most stirring portion of the song for me has always been the English verse that reads<\/p>\n

Truly He taught us to love one another;
\nHis law is Love and His gospel is Peace;
\nChains shall he break, for the slave is our brother,
\nAnd in his name all oppression shall cease.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

May that day come soon! \u00a0In the meantime, for something just a bit different and unexpected, here is a rendition of it by the great operatic tenor Jussi Bj\u00f6rling. (1911-1960)<\/a>, unfortunately performed in his (though not the song\u2019s) native Swedish.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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