Nearly 10 million people attended the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962.
The theme was, “The Age of Space.” The Space Needle, now a Seattle landmark, was constructed for the fair.
My mother, who was 10 years old at the time, remembers getting a coin for admission to the Space Needle.
She decided that she liked the coin so much that she kept it rather than using it to go up to the observation deck.
She still has the coin.
Two years later was the New York World’s Fair.
The theme for this fair was “Peace Through Understanding.”
Admission was $2 and 51 million visitors attended.
The Ford Mustang debuted there.
RCA was showing color television.
Bell Laboratories showed a picture-phone much like FaceTime.
At the entrance of the New York World’s Fair was an impressive pavilion from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
You couldn’t miss the 127-foot-tall replica of the front facade of the iconic Salt Lake Temple with its three spires.
Inside the pavilion was an 11-foot-tall reproduction of the Christus statue, copied from Bertel Thorvaldsen’s sculpture at a Lutheran church in Copenhagen, Denmark.
It was commissioned by the Church for the fair.
The pavilion had two movie theaters, 50 trees, hundreds of shrubs and a thousand flowers.
The theme for the Church’s pavilion was “Man’s Search for Happiness,” and a film with the same title was shown at the fair.
The movie began by saying, “Sometimes in your search for happiness, you ponder the meaning in your life,” followed by three questions, “Who am I? Where did I come from? What happens after death?”
Where did I come from?
We don’t know much about our pre-mortal life, but I think this is key to understanding our purpose in life.
The poet William Wordsworth said, “From trailing clouds of glory do we come. From God, who is our home.” In short, we came from the presence of God.
Who am I?
We are created in the image of God.
The spirit and the body comprise our soul.
We pray to our Heavenly Father.
We came to earth to gain a family, receive a body and develop faith.
We are more than happenstance creations.
We are sons and daughters of God.
Benjamin Franklin said, “There were only two things certain in life: death and taxes.”
And as Charles Dickens said, we are all “fellow passengers to the grave.”
What happens after death?
Jesus taught, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
The prophet Alma clearly taught about the resurrection, saying that, thanks to Jesus Christ, “The soul shall be restored to the body, yea, even a hair of the head shall not be lost; but all things shall be restored to their proper and perfect frame.”
Mortality is a chapter, not the finale.
We are all given an equal amount of time each day.
How we spend that time is up to us.
When we know who we really are, we want to dedicate our lives to service and the gospel of Jesus Christ which brings everlasting peace and happiness.
It enriches our life.
In this, we find sincere purpose and meaning.
Nobody at the end of this mortal passage says, “I wish that I wouldn’t have spent so much time with my family.”
Nor do they say, “I wish that I wouldn’t have served others so much.”
What matters at the end of our earthly journey, where one passes through the veil into the afterlife, is that we have loved our family; that we served our neighbor; and that we have worshiped God and kept His commandments.
This is the answer to man’s search for happiness.
When we really know our identity as a son or daughter of God, and our life has a real purpose, this brings eternal joy.
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Issues of Faith is a rotating column by religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Bishop Jason Bringhurst is the leader of the Mount Pleasant Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Port Angeles. His email is jasonbring@gmail.com.
