Encircled About Eternally

To my daughter,

                Elder Jay E. Jensen told a powerful story in general conference many years ago. He related, “A family had been taking pictures on a lookout point of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. They heard screams and ran to find that a two-year-old girl had fallen through a railing to a ledge about 35 feet below. The little one tried to climb back up, but her movements caused her to slip even farther until she was 5 feet from a dangerous 200-foot drop.” How awful that must have been for this family! I can hardly fathom the feelings of instant terror that must have swept over them. The little girl was on that ledge and could easily fall to her death if something wasn’t done immediately to stop her from going further over the edge. Elder Jensen continued, “A 19-year-old young man named Ian saw where she was and, using his emergency-response training, knew how to handle the situation. These are his words: ‘“Immediately, it all came at me, and I just knew what I had to do. I set down my camera and went up the trail a little ways where it wasn’t as steep, climbed over the rail, scrambled down a bunch of rocks and through brush, and found her.” Holding her in his arms for an hour, Ian waited until emergency teams could drop down with ropes’ to rescue them.” Can you imagine that young man there holding this two-year-old girl for an hour on that little ledge? What a powerful scene of love and rescue. When they were finally rescued and brought back to safety, the boy’s mom described what she saw: “I could see blond hair and a tiny face among all of the emergency equipment, and she held her hand out and it was wrapped around Ian’s two fingers.” Ian was the name of this young man, and he saved the life of this little girl that day. This is what he said afterwards, “I know there is a plan for everyone and there is a purpose for all things. Our Savior saves us in so many more ways than I could ever save someone else.” This story is a powerful reminder to us that we have a Savior who is there to rescue us when we fall. If we will but hold his hand and let Him grasp us, He will help us through all of our struggles in this life.

                I hope that you and I can remember Jesus Christ more and reach out to Him for His help in all that we do. I love this famous invitation He gave to all of us in mortality: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). That is a powerful promise that no one else and no other thing can give us. Because He took upon Himself all our sins and weaknesses and struggles in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross, descending below all things, He has divine power to lift us up wherever we need to go. He spoke of what He did for you and for me in these words, “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:18-29). Because He voluntarily took upon Himself that infinite suffering, He knows exactly how you and I feel and how to succor us in our needs. And how do we come unto Him? The image of a yoke powerful—a yoke of oxen are bound together with a wooden structure that connects them so that they pull together until it is removed. To put on a yoke with Him means that we too go everywhere with Him. We think of Him in the morning and night as we pray, we ponder on His life as we study the scriptures each day, we remember His sacrifice as we take the sacrament each Sunday, and we “look unto [Him] in every thought” throughout the day (Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). As we strive to keep our covenant to always remember Him, we will have His peace and power and presences with us. I hope that you and I will work harder to remember Him always and find as Lehi that we are “encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15). 

Love, Dad