You ask how much I need you
Must I explain?
I need you, oh, my darling
Must I explain?
I need you, oh, my darling
Like roses need rain
You ask how long, I'll love youI'll tell you true
Until the twelfth of never
I'll still be loving you
Hold me close
Never let me go
Never let me go
Hold me close
Melt my heart like April snow
Melt my heart like April snow
I'll love you 'til the blue bells forget to
bloom
I'll love you 'til the clover has lost its perfume
I'll love you 'til the poets run out of rhyme
I'll love you 'til the clover has lost its perfume
I'll love you 'til the poets run out of rhyme
Until the twelfth of never
And that's a long long time
Until the twelfth of never
And that's a long long time
And that's a long long time
Until the twelfth of never
And that's a long long time
My husband and I are celebrating our 50th anniversary and I remember the song that was popular in our day—“The Twelfth of Never.” It is a beautiful ballad where he pledges to love her “until the twelfth of never. . . and that’s a long, long time.” This is supposed to mean a time that can’t be counted, infinity. Many other love songs sing of eternal love, a love beyond the bounds of this earth, a never-ending love.
When my husband and I married 50 years ago in the Logan
Temple, our marriage was “sealed” not just until death parts us, but for time
and all eternity. This indeed is a marriage that lasts “until the twelfth of
never” or for infinity.
What is a Temple or Eternal Marriage? Why would one want
such a marriage?
First
to want an eternal marriage, you must believe in a life beyond this mortal
temporal life—a life before birth and a life after death—an eternal life. As
members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also referred to as
Mormons), we believe that our existence on the earth today is only one part of
our eternal progression; that we lived as spirit beings before we came to
earth; we are living on earth to obtain mortal bodies and to test us; that
after death we will once again live in a spiritual realm until we are
resurrected and receive an immortal body.
If you believe in life after this, (as Mormons do) then
you want to preserve family ties into the next life.
If you believe only in this life and that when you die,
your existence as a soul, spirit or any kind of conscious being or entity is
wiped out, then there is no need for a marriage past death; there is nothing
past death. Many people believe this way, and when family members die, it is
indeed a devastating thought that their existence is gone.
Many Christians do believe in life after death and look forward
to rejoining deceased family members when they die. The idea of living together
in family units after death is especially appealing if your family life was
happy.
My mother died over 49 years ago, soon after we were
married. I was very close to her, and I yearned to have a mother to turn to as
a young mother for guidance and support. Several times during the years when I
have needed her, I have felt my mother’s spirit and her love and know that the
veil between this world and the next can be very thin. Another time when I was
going through a difficult illness and felt overwhelmed, I often felt my
maternal grandparents nearby—I felt they were right behind me and if I turned
quickly enough I would see them; I felt that they knew of my struggle and were
there to support me. Those times I felt their spirit, I was uplifted, knowing I
wasn’t alone, and I felt encouraged to keep going.
A very dear sister of mine died twelve years ago of
cancer. Her husband sat with her often before her death; one day they were
discussing Coleen’s mother, who had also died young of cancer. Coleen’s husband
asked her if she thought that her deceased mother’s spirit had been around
during the busy years that he and Coleen were raising their nine children.
Coleen smiled and replied, oh yes, her mother had been there watching them
raise their children and her grandchildren.
Coleen’s husband asked her how she knew that. Coleen was
very peaceful replied; her mother’s spirit was sitting over in the corner of
the room. When he had asked Coleen that question, her mother nodded her head,
indicating, yes, she had been there.
If you believe in a post-mortal life, and want to be
with your family after death, you need to know how you can. Who can promise
such a thing?
I believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints has the authority to promise a marriage union that will last beyond this
life. I believe that Christ’s church was restored to the earth by Christ’s
apostles, and with it the power to seal couples in heaven and on earth.
On April 3,
1836, in the newly dedicated temple in Kirtland, Ohio, the Lord Jehovah
appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith
and Oliver Cowdery. Then Moses,
Elias, and Elijah each appeared and committed the keys of vital and eternal
works to earthly leaders once more.
Elijah’s
appearance was in fulfillment of the prophecy made in Malachi 4:5–6:
“Behold, I
will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful
day of the Lord:
“And he shall
turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to
their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
The keys and
power of the priesthood Elijah restored on that day in the Kirtland Temple are
described in Doctrine and Covenants 132:46: “And verily, verily, I say unto you,
that whatsoever you seal on earth shall be sealed in
heaven; and whatsoever you bind on earth, in my name and by my word,
saith the Lord, it shall be eternally bound in the heavens.”
These sealing
ordinances, which bind families together for eternity, can be performed only in
holy temples by those having the proper priesthood authority.[i]
Who then would want a temple marriage? A young couple
who believe in eternal life, who believe in the authority of the church which
promises the power to unite them eternally, and who love each other enough to
want to be sealed eternally would want a temple marriage. A young couple who were not sure about their
love, who were thinking (even unconsciously) that if it didn’t work they could
always get a divorce and try again, wouldn’t want an eternal commitment that
would be harder to cancel or break.
The
commitment a couple who want an eternal marriage is far more than a couple who
just wants to get married.
To be sealed as a family, knowing that you will be
united as a family after death is infinitely precious. In our fifty years of
marriage my husband and I have lost three grandchildren and there have been
several times when my husband has been so ill we were fearful that he wasn’t
long for this life. My husband served two tours in Vietnam as a helicopter
pilot and I worried daily if he would survive the war or not. But the confidence
of the resurrection and the knowledge that we would be a family again helps
make these trials more bearable.
As we celebrate our fifty years together, they haven’t
always been easy. But I love him just as much as I did when I heard that song
many years ago, “Until the twelfth of never, I’ll still be loving you.” With
temple marriage, even after death, we’ll still be able to love each other as a
couple with our family, forever.
