The Parable of the Provo Temple

On December 17th 2010 I was passing through downtown Provo on my way to work.  Nearing Center street I was sent on a small detour and realized it was because the Provo Tabernacle was on fire.  Firemen and emergency workers surrounded the building as well as directed traffic and the people that had started to gather.  Like many others I began to reminisce about time I spent in the tabernacle and felt sad.  This seemed like one more sad thing in the news, one more tragedy, one more loss.

Months passed and rubble from the tabernacle accumulated in piles outside it's walls.  Tarps, ladders, and cranes surrounded the building for almost 10 months without a hint as to what would be done with the burned out shell.

During General Conference in October 2011 an announcement was made.

It was so exciting to hear that the Tabernacle would be rebuilt into a Temple!  One of my favorite parts of general conference is the announcement of new temples.  I have been fortunate to always live within 30 minutes of a temple (since the time I learned about temples) but many have to travel thousands of miles to attend the temple once in their lifetime, and many other members of the church do not have the opportunity to attend at all.  So when the moment comes and new temple sites are announced I picture saints all over the world cheering and celebrating.   When President Monson announced this temple the cheering and celebrating was here. 

I pictured the flames and the sad onlookers and how they did not know what would happen as a result of those flames.  We see the flames and we think...why?  When the tabernacle burned, the fire didn't just take history with it, the building was stocked with extremely expensive instruments including a $20,000 harp that was in the building in preparation for a concert (what a beautiful concert it would have been).  That building had big plans.  

Now with more of the "big picture" as they say, I felt like I was the tabernacle.    I thought of my own fires, and the sad onlookers, the piles of rubble, trying to make sense of the aftermath.  I was reminded of  the many articles that were written the previous December about how Provo's heart was broken and this announcement reminded me of a quote by C.S.Lewis:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself” (Mere Christianity).

I wonder if the witnesses to the fire (had they known at the time what would be the fate of that old Tabernacle) would have been chanting "burn baby burn" or if they  would have been picturing the beautiful landscaping that would later surround the engulfed building.  Would they have stood imagining how many families would be sealed and reunited as a result of what would later transpire within those walls?  

I imagine if the Tabernacle was a "living house" it would measure it's life (as I measure my own) by before the fire and after the fire.

Provo Tabernacle shortly after it was built in  1898

The fire on December 17th 2010

Future Provo Temple