The Lord has quite a list of teaching materials: "things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; ... in the heavens above, ... on the earth, ... in the earth, and ... under the earth, both above and beneath." All that, bent to his great teaching purpose: "All things are created and made to bear record of me" (Moses 6:63).

"All things," Nephi wrote, "which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him" (2 Nephi 11:4). A host of types, shadows, symbols, wake-ups and reminders -- intended to point our minds to Christ.

Those divine teaching aids -- heaven's sticky notes, as it were -- are everywhere.

Consider just two.

First, Nephi's ship-building project, described in 1 Nephi 18. It parallels the Savior's Atonement in some ways. The ship was to get a great family to the other side of a barrier. A certain beloved son got the job. The ship was not after the manner of men, just as the Atonement is nothing like man-made efforts to change us or erase our guilt.
It was not easy for Nephi to get the help of his brethren. He did the key things alone (verse 3). But the outcome was so "exceedingly fine" and effective that his doubtful brethren were at last humbled by the finished project.

Like Christ's Atonement, Nephi's ship carried a father's offspring to their promised land. And the chief cargo? Families, of course.

That wasn't the only time in history when a prophet, against all odds, wrought a blessing for the unaware, the uninterested or the unfriendly. In doing so, those benefactors were types and symbols of the ultimate benefactor himself.

Consider another case, Joseph Smith's temple-building project in Kirtland, Ohio. Like Nephi, alone for key parts of the process, Joseph "did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto (him) great things" (1 Nephi 18:3).

Joseph asked some of his brethren what kind of temple should be built. They somehow thought it should either be a small, inexpensive frame structure or an even smaller log house. But the Lord had already revealed to Joseph a grandeur of purpose and construction "not after the manner of the world" (Doctrine and Covenants 95:13; see also verses 11-17).

After listening to the well-meaning suggestions of his brethren, Joseph stood and said, "Shall we, brethren, build a house for our God of logs? No, I have a better plan than that. I have the plan of the house of the Lord, given by himself. You will see by this the difference between our calculations and his idea of things" (cited in Lucy Mack Smith, "History of Joseph Smith," 230).

They were, of course, stunned. More breathtaking than the plan was the finished product, and the sacrifices of a humble and impoverished people that produced it. And yet more wondrous are the effects that continue to flow from that temple. It was more than a type and shadow of the Savior's project. It was an instrument for releasing upon mankind the blessings of that sacred project.

The very structure inspired wonder in thoughtful observers. One astute non-member wrote, "It appears a miracle. ... Members of the Church ... were inspired by almost superhuman exertion of body and brilliance of mind" (cited on page 156 of "Joseph Smith's Kirtland," a wonderful book by Karl Ricks Anderson).

The first latter-day temple continues to bear record of Christ and his redemption -- a redemption that is not after the manner of men.