The House of the Lord

We call the temple the House of the Lord. Why not call it the mansion, or the palace, or the castle, or the fortress of the Lord? Why something so humble and commonplace as a house for Someone so exalted and mighty as God? I believe it is for the same reason that the most common way for us to refer to God is as our Father. We don't often call Him King, though He is greater than any king; we don't often call Him Emperor, though He is more powerful than any emperor; we don't call Him General or Commander in Chief, though He is mightier than any general or Commander in Chief. We call Him Father, and we call the places we have built for Him the House of the Lord, because the house is where we gather together to be with our Father and the rest of our family. Temples are sacred, holy places. But they are also our Father's house and we should feel the same kind of familiarity and welcomeness in our Father's home that we do in our own homes. It is said that only the home compares in sacredness to the temple, but it is just as true that only the temple compares in homeyness to the home. In the same way that we never feel like we are imposing or unwanted or uninvited when we are entering into our own home, as long as we have a current temple recommend, we should feel perfectly at ease and more than welcome to enter our Father's House. Just as our early parents love it when we come to visit them in their homes, our Heavenly Father loves seeing us in His House.