It is a dismal morning.  The valley is enshrouded in smoke from distant forest fires.  The smoke is causing me to miss what would otherwise be a beautiful sunrise.  I have an appointment each morning at this hour with the sun as it ushers in a new day, but today the sun has missed our appointment, and the light is diminished.

I have also missed five months' worth of temple appointments.  COVID 19 has blanketed the world with its own obstruction of light, and the temples closed.  The light is diminished.

But rains will come.  The fires will be put out, and the air will clear.  The sun will once again be in its appointed place each morning.  It will be farther south, however, and will be rising later and later as winter gets nearer and nearer.

The pandemic that has closed the temples will clear also.  I suspect that the Saints will be so grateful to have temple worship and temple light back again that they will fill the temples to overflowing.

I pray that may be so, and I pray that Marjorie and I may be able to return to our weekly temple service.

We're also five months closer to the rising of the Son.  His coming is ever nearer.  Am I ready?  Am I prepared to keep this appointment?  Have I completed all of the temple and family history work that I am supposed to do and that I have set out to do?

Light is being obscured on every hand, not only by a pandemic, but by protests and by political posturing and by priestcrafts and by prevarications of every sort propagated by the father of lies.  Through it all I am anticipating the rising of the Son.  All will be made right.  The light of a terrestrial world is dawning.  It's as obvious as the approach of the sun as it nears the horizon on a normal, clear morning.

This morning, after writing the above, I read this:

"The people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up."  (Matthew 4:16).

That's us.  We must keep our eyes glued to the horizon.

(Note:  After writing the above, and minutes before typing it into the computer, an email announcement came from the Meridian Temple presidency announcing that in one week, 31 August 2020, the temple will reopen in phase two, meaning that ordinances for the dead will again be administered.  We're going back to work.)