Rededication Ceremony — 4

And I’m glad to meet you folks, see part of the family. And I want you to know that I do this also in the name of my beloved Savior, even Jesus Christ, Amen. Richard B. “Andy” Anderson: Thank you, Cousin Steve. If anybody has not signed in with Becca Wilhite (raise your hand, Becca, thank you) she has the participants’ log and if you can put down your coordinates, we’ll be able to keep in touch. I’d hate to lose contact after this. So, e-mail addresses, snail-mail addresses, whatever you’ve got. Okay, we came here to dedicate. Let’s do it. Merciful and almighty Father, we give thee thanks for the joy we feel in our heart, as we gather on this sacred spot. We come here today to dedicate a monument to our honored ancestor, Isaac Decker, to rededicate his grave, and perhaps most importantly to rededicate ourselves to the principles to which he dedicated his life. Father, we don’t know our Grandpa Isaac as well as we’d like to. A century of reticence and some malfeasance, and a great deal of decay have blurred his picture, and so we do not know him as we would like to know him. But we take comfort that first of all we know enough to honor him. We have some indication of what he endured, and we have confidence that when he was enduring it, he did it with us in mind, in the manner of pioneers in all times and places. It was his hope and intention, we are confident, that we should have an easier time of it, as we face our different challenges and trials. We rejoice also in the knowledge that Thou knowest him perfectly, and that Thy knowledge is coupled to Thy mercy, and that whatever may need to be forgiven in our Grandpa Isaac’s life, through the Atonement of Thy Son, will be forgiven in due time, and we pray that we may be similarly worthy. We also give Thee thanks, Father, that Thou hast commanded us to turn our hearts to our fathers. As we have kept this commandment, in the measure that we have kept it, we have experienced great joys, including the joy of coming together and knowing each other today. We are reminded, Father, of the words that the Revelator attributed to Thy Spirit, speaking to the ancient Church at Ephesus. They sound to us like what Thou wouldst likely say to Isaac Decker: “I know thy works, and thy patience, and how thou hast held my name, and endured.”

And we also take comfort, Father, in the promises that Thou hast made to those who overcome. As we are confident that Isaac endured and overcame, we pray that we may similarly endure and overcome. That on that great day, we may strike hands with Isaac Decker and other faithful saints. That having endured, we may be given to eat of the hidden manna, that we may have to eat of the tree of life, that is in the midst of the paradise of God, that we may with Isaac stand as pillars in the Temple of our God, to go no more out. And ultimately, and most amazingly, through the Holy Atonement, that we may sit with our Savior Jesus Christ in His throne, even as He also overcame and is set down with His Father in His throne. To this end we rededicate ourselves. We present this gift of a durable monument to our honored ancestor. And, though this ground needs no prayer of ours to hallow it -- it’s been sacred to the memory of Isaac Decker for a hundred thirty-three years now -- we do rededicate this place, for the sake of those who come after, that we may now look and see and remember the works of our ancestor and his worthiness. And we do it in the worthy name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

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