Locks and Keys

This Sunday, I'm teaching a Primary lesson about the dedication of the Kirtland Temple and the restoration of the keys of missionary and temple work.

Side note: How weird is it that the keys of missionary work weren't restored until 1836? Given all that we've covered in church history so far, I was sure they'd've sent out some missionaries by then. But no, the first official missionaries weren't sent out until 1837, though I'm sure people still told their friends and neighbors about the church well before then even without an official calling to preach the gospel full time.

What struck me most about the restoration of the keys of temple work was that, even after sacrificing so much to build a temple, which they were going to lose before too long, the early saints still did not have the opportunity to perform all of the temple ordinances. I think they could get their endowments, but according to the lesson manual, the Kirtland Temple "had no baptismal font in which to perform baptisms for the dead and no altars for temple marriages," and I only think they could perform endowments there. I could easily be wrong about that, especially since the lesson manual also says that "the Kirtland Temple was not designed for the ordinances we now perform in temples," the ordinances whose keys were restored just a week after the temple was dedicated. The early saints were given the keys to temple work; they just didn't have a temple in which they could do it.

The beginning of the lesson emphasizes the importance of keys, but what this lesson really taught me was the importance of locks. Having keys is practically pointless without access to the things the keys unlock. Without the locks they unlock, keys are basically worthless. This makes me curious as to why the Lord would restore the keys of temple work before the saints had built a temple in which they could perform it, and that makes me think that maybe there were some ordinances the early saints could perform in the Kirtland Temple, even though the manual doesn't mention any and specifically mentions the absence of fonts and altars.

Of course, these questions and curiosities are purely academic. We now have the keys to temple ordinances and temples in which we can do them. We have both the keys and the locks, so we should use them. As for the early saints, I'm sure God had a good reason to give them the keys to temple work then, even if they didn't have the opportunity to use them yet. As always, God knows what He's doing. Perhaps there were some ordinances they could perform even if they couldn't yet perform others, or perhaps they were given the keys early in order to prove that they could hold on to this sacred responsibility for a while before they were given the opportunity to use that power. God does seem fairly fond of preparation and tests.

At any rate, whether I share any of this in my Primary lesson or not, the main takeaway for me is that it's not enough to have the key to a lock. In order to benefit from that key, we have to actually go to its lock and open it. This applies to temple work, the gift of the Holy Ghost, or any other blessing we have access to that's contingent on our actions. It's not enough to just have the scriptures, for example; we also have to read them. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have access to a great deal of blessings, but it's up to us obtain them and make use of them. I wonder what all keys we've been given and what locks they could help us open.