Rescuers

Yesterday on the plane I finished reading More Than Miracles by T.C. Christiansen, director of the recent movie 17 Miracles about the Willie and Martin handcart companies. One of my ancestral uncles, Abel Garr, was one of the three advance rescuers. Finishing the book and journaling about our Manti trip created a common theme for me.

I have come to understand that we are all rescuers if we listen to the subtle whispers of the Spirit. Just as the rescuers on the plains, we rescue both physically and spiritually. Sometimes, as careworn and weary travelers, we likewise receive our own sustaining miracles -a protecting angel, a helping hand, a tow, a friend, a smile, a hug - to aid us on our journey.

In one of my favorite talks of his, "The Ministry of Angels", Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face. '[N]or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man [or woman or child] upon the face thereof to be saved.'  On occasions, global or personal, we may feel we are distanced from God, shut out from heaven, lost, alone in dark and dreary places. Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal.


"May we all believe more readily in, and have more gratitude for, the Lord’s promise as contained in one of President Monson’s favorite scriptures: 'I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, … my Spirit shall be in your [heart], and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.' In the process of praying for those angels to attend us, may we all try to be a little more angelic ourselves—with a kind word, a strong arm, a declaration of faith and 'the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.' Perhaps then we can be emissaries sent from God..."

How grateful I am for such sustaining miracles, rescuers, and angels in my own life!