Several years ago we had the opportunity to build a home in a beautiful location, on a forested lot with the potential for grand views of the mountain range to the west. We very carefully measured, walked, planned and adjusted the orientation and design of the house to capture those views from the windows of our home. We spent many hours and considerable amounts of thought and effort in our attempt to realize the potential of that goal.
As I drove around town during that busy time, I thought about all of the effort and hoped it would be worth it in the end. As I drove, the song lyrics of an older country song came into my mind. The song spoke generally about the favorite view of the singer. It wasn’t the landscape around the home, but ‘from the front porch looking in.’ It hit me in that moment, that no matter how majestic the peaks looked from the windows of my house, the most precious and important views I would ever have in that place were looking to the inside of my home, not the outside. No view could ever be more valuable to me than the sight of my children playing together, or the view of our family praying around the table; the big moments of graduations and bringing fiancees home, and the simple moments of bedtime stories and laughter, scripture study and holiday traditions and every moment in between.
I wondered in that thought if I was giving the thought, planning, focus and preparation those inside ‘views’ deserved. It is easy to lose track of those things that are most important to us sometimes in the distraction of the mundane and the business of life. I wanted more than anything, though, to put my highest, most consecrated efforts into making the life inside that beautiful home the most grand and glorious I would ever see.
In a spiritual sense, the view that comes from eternally important relationships is more majestic than mountain peaks. I get a glimpse of that as I have been in temples with my family and as we have had discussions at home about what the gospel of Jesus Christ means to us. I have had a vision of eternity as I have watched them love and serve one another and cheer each other on. Because ‘exaltation is a family matter,’ (Russell M. Nelson, “Come, Follow Me,” Ensign, Apr. 2019, 89) the highest views on earth or in heaven largely happen inside our homes.
