On Sunday, October 5, 1856, President Brigham Young stood in Sunday services and issued a plea, “…many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with handcarts, and probably many are now seven hundred miles from this place, and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to them. The text will be, ‘to get them here.’ …That is my religion; that is the dictation of the Holy Ghost that I possess. It is to save the people.” (As quoted by President Gordon B. Hinckley, October 1991)
We are all familiar with the story of the tragic loss and the rescue of the Willie and Martin handcart companies, but this summer I learned that one of the men in that rescue party was my third great grandfather, Samuel Bennion, and my perspective shifted because I know Samuel’s story.
He and his family had travelled the very route he retraced that October and had experienced their own trials on it. In their effort to follow the Lord, Jesus Christ, each of the rescuers had travelled that path. Through their own experiences, they had been prepared to respond to the call of the Savior, through His prophet, “to save the people.” Still, when they met those stranded on the trail, they had never seen the depth of suffering that met their eyes.
There was only one who could understand the measure of the stranded pioneers’ pain. The Savior, Jesus Christ, had “take[n] upon Him their infirmities, that His bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that He may know how to succor His people according to their infirmities.” (Alma 7:12) He has traversed the path of our pains, our sorrows, our weakness to be prepared and ready to rescue us in our deepest distress. As we walk with Him, He allows us to go to the rescue with Him and to be rescued ourselves.
“I testify that God sees us as we truly are—and He sees us worthy of rescue….just as the Good Shepherd finds His lost sheep, if you will only lift up your heart to the Savior of the world, He will find you. He will rescue you. He will lift you up and place you on His shoulders. He will carry you home.” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, April 2016)