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The Raleigh North Carolina Temple is one of a series of detailed pencil drawings and paintings created by the artist Chad S. Hawkins. In 1989, at the age of seventeen, Chad started this unique temple series, becoming the original LDS artist to involve hidden spiri-tual images in his artwork.
Built in 1869, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is the tallest lighthouse in America, at a height of 225 feet, and its powerful light beam is visible for twenty miles. It has served as a primary navigational aid for mariners rounding the treacherous Diamond Shoals in the area known as the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.” With its distinctive black-and-white candy-cane spiral design, it soon became a landmark of the Carolina coastline and is currently on the National Register of Historic Places.
In this drawing, the hidden image is based upon Christ as the light of the world, and the gospel is his message of light and salvation to all men. The Lord’s word is a light to the path of the faithful (Ps. 119:105), and men are commanded to “walk in the light of the Lord” (John 11:9–10). As the light beam from a lighthouse serves as a protection from perilous hazards to traveling sailors, the light of Christ serves as a protection for mankind against the hazards of every kind of evil. One way that the Saints can “put on the armour of light” (Rom. 13:12) is by being a temple-attending and a temple-loving people. The distinctive spiral design of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse can be seen in this drawing among the trees on the left. Its beam of light is focused on the temple and the Savior, drawn to the right of the temple.
