Driving in the night on an icy mountain highway in a blizzard, a motorist suddenly found himself in the harrowing circumstance of skidding sideways out of control down the road at highway speed. Thinking he might be facing imminent injury or even death, he soon came to a stop when his car slid off the road into a snowdrift.
For the moment, he was relieved that he was uninjured and his car, a tiny sub-compact, seemed to have sustained no damage. But now he faced another plight, as his wheels could get no traction in the heavily drifted snow. This was in the days before cell phones. Given the conditions and the time of night, there was very little traffic. The nearest home or business was too many miles away to make walking practical. Prospects of getting help seemed dim indeed.
His anxiety was only momentary, though. Soon, a four-wheel-drive vehicle approached him from behind and carefully pushed his car back onto the pavement.
The rescued motorist never met or conversed with his benefactor; conditions made it imprudent to stop and do so. He merely tooted his horn in an expression of gratitude. Today, some 25 years later, the incident is vivid in his memory, and his gratitude endures, though he never had opportunity to learn the identity of the motorist who helped him.
Virtually all of us have encountered or will encounter an experience in which we are saved from difficult or dire circumstances due to the kindness of another. Such experiences can be instructive if we apply them to understanding our position in relationship to our Lord and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Latter-day Saints around the world this year have been studying the Old Testament as the gospel doctrine course in Sunday School. Thus far, we have considered some of the abundant Messianic symbolism in the five books of Moses: the typology in the story of Abraham and Isaac, for example, and in the Feast of the Passover. In addition some of the stories and events direct our minds to the redeeming role of Christ as Deliverer, exemplified by the instrumentality of Joseph in Egypt in providing food for his father and brethren during the famine and by the Lord delivering the Israelites from Egyptian bondage through the leadership of Moses.
Deliverance, perhaps the most dramatic and blessed theme in all of scripture, is a thread running through all four of the Standard Works of the Church.
Christ established it early in His mortal ministry when, teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth, He read a passage from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4:18; see also Isaiah 61:1). Our Lord, of course, applied this passage to Himself and devoted His mortal life to fulfilling it.
In the Book of Mormon, we see the Lord easing the burdens of the people of Alma in bondage to the Lamanites under Amulon before finally freeing them (see Mosiah 24). We see Alma the younger and Amulek delivered from prison as their tormentors are destroyed (see Alma 14:25-29).
In the Doctrine and Covenants, we have the Prophet Joseph Smith's plaintive plea while in Liberty Jail being answered by the Lord's assurance: "Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes" (Doctrine and Covenants 121:8-9).
And in the Pearl of Great Price, there is the declaration "that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel" (Articles of Faith 3).
Those words, in fact, encapsulate the ultimate meaning in every scriptural symbol, declaration and example of deliverance. Together they help us comprehend our utter helplessness as mortals and our total reliance upon the mercy, love and power of the Savior to overcome for us the physical and spiritual death that attend mortality. Essentially, conversion amounts to realizing where one stands with respect to Christ as the Deliverer and being motivated thereby to repent of one's sins, keep His commandments and endure to the end.
May that awareness bless us during this Easter season and always.