A Parable
by
Connie Goulding
August 5th, 2010, thirty-three Chilean miners, 2,300 ft. deep inside the earth, were trapped by a massive cave-in when the rock inside the mine where they were working, collapsed. They were restricted to a 500 ft. safe area and to the mine shafts below the collapse. It was hot, humid, dark and uncomfortable.
They were dead men walking, and unless they were rescued they were doomed to live for only as long as the small supply of emergency food, water and their personal stamina would last. Although they had tools and knowledge, they had no power to save themselves. The task of freeing themselves was too overwhelming.
How alone they must have felt as they listened for any sign of a rescue, only to hear the groaning of the earth as it settled in upon itself. They were separated from home and family by almost a half a mile of unmovable rock overhead. Their hope of ascending the three and a half miles through the twisting mine shaft, the same route that they had descended, became impossible after the massive rock fall.
When faced with the stark reality of their situation they chose to have hope. They organized themselves, rationed their food and water and waited. They had faith that those on the surface were working, doing what they could to rescue them. Still there must have been times when it became hard to hold onto that hope as day after day passed. Days passed and then weeks. Finally days after their food ran out, on the seventeenth day of their captivity, hope was renewed when a small shaft was created as a drill bit broke through from the surface.
The trapped men, wanting the rescuers on the surface to know they had been found, pounded on the drill bit, hoping that those working on their rescue would hear their tapping. To be sure that those on the surface knew that they had been found alive they fastened a note written in red marker to the end of the bit. It read “ESTAMOS BIEN EN EL REFUGIO, los 33”, “We are well in the shelter, the 33.”
Through a small hole, the circumference of a grapefruit, communication was established with the world on the surface. Communications via the shaft became known as “Palomas,” or being interpreted “Doves”, because, along with the food, water, and medicine sent down the shaft to the miners, notes from loved ones were carefully carried, as if on the wings of a dove, through the shaft to the trapped miners below and back to their families on the surface.
It must have been with mixed feelings that the miners faced the reality of their situation. On one hand there was overwhelming joy and relief that they had been found, but on the other hand the enormity of their dilemma must have been daunting. Even though those on the surface knew where they were, it would take time to put a rescue plan into place and it was unknown if the plan would even work.
Never before had a rescue of this depth, for this many men, after this length of time been successful. The rescuers reluctantly informed the miners that it would be months before they could be brought to the surface. The rescuers hoped to have the miners back with their families by Christmas. The miners faced an entombment of an additional 4 months.
In many ways the story of our lives mirrors that of the trapped miners. We have descended below our home, away from our Father in Heaven. We, like them, are dead men walking, trapped in our mortality, lost with no way to save ourselves.
In this life there are times when we all suffer. We have a short ranged view of our existence and many times we feel that we sit in the darkness unable to see beyond our own pain. We feel a loneliness and a longing for a better place and have an underlying feeling that there should be more to our existence and that this is not our home. Many times we feel alone and wonder if anyone knows of our pain or cares.
There are among us, many who through the consequences of their own choices have lost many of the liberties that our Heavenly Father planned for us to enjoy in this life. Many are in bondage to addictions of their physical bodies or to errors of thinking or both. Some of us are in sad circumstances not only because of the choices we have made but, also because of the choices of others. Many of us were directed on wrong paths by those who should have loved us and provided us with better. Some are lost because of pride and self-centeredness, and an inability to empathize with others. Some have given up hope and some just don't want to be told what to do.
Early in their captivity the miners organized themselves and divided into teams with three men in each. They were to watch over and help one another with physical, mental and spiritual challenges. That was one of the secrets of their being able to survive as long and as well as they did. They truly became their brothers' keepers.
We, like the miners, are in this existence together, trying to figure out the best way to live our lives. How much better off would we be if we loved others as we love ourselves and they loved us?
In the miners' case, as in ours, there were several plans of rescue put forth, but for them, there was only one plan where the drill stayed true and did not veer off course or come to a halt because it was not up the the task. One drill followed a straight path, through one of the small pilot holes that had been drilled previously to locate the miners.
The miners were not passive in their rescue. As the drill rotated and pounded its way to their rescue, rock fell down the smaller shaft and heaped up into a rubble pile in the cavern where the miners were trapped. The miners worked to move the rock as it came down, clearing the way for the larger drill. They worked around the clock, in hot and uncomfortable conditions. They worked being hungry. They helped one another. They had hope, and they endured.
Everyone born into this life faces the same impossible dilemma, with our first breath we start the journey to our death. Our mortality stands between us and our immortal home. We have no way to save ourselves or one another.
For the Chilean miners, rescuers built a capsule to be lowered down the narrow shaft using cables. The rescue capsule was cylindrical and narrow, just 24 inches in circumference, barely big enough for a man to fit inside. The capsule was only 4 inches narrower than the shaft that was driven through 2,300 ft. of solid rock.
Deep in the mine the miners waited for their salvation, while on the surface rescuers worked out details of the rescue plan. Before a single miner was brought to the surface several of the rescuers descended down the narrow shaft. They volunteered to minister to the trapped miners, to check their physical and mental well being and to prove that the rescue capsule would work.
Through our Heavenly Father's love for us, the world has been blessed by the ministering of angels. Angels who have chosen to aid us in our journey back to our Heavenly home. Many in the depths of their trials have been touched personally by angels who have chosen to be their guardians and history is filled with examples of angelic visits that have enlightened mankind and pointed us back to our Heavenly Father who loves us.
When the time came for the miners to be raised from the depths of their captivity each man was faced with the choice to believe that the plan for their rescue would succeed. One man at a time stepped into the capsule; each to make the ascent alone. As each man put his trust in the plan, he had hope that the capsule would be drawn up the narrow shaft in a true and straight ascent and not become off balance and get stuck. If the capsule were to become stuck in the shaft, it would crush their hope of a rescue and condemn the miner and those yet to followed to the dark depths of the Earth. The plan had to work or all hope was lost.
Before this world was created a plan was put into motion to rescue us. For us a Savior was provided. A Savior chosen to save us from our mortality, from all the sadness, pain, errors in thinking, sin, illness and death that we would suffer in this life, to bring us back to our home and to our Father in Heaven.
Just as with the miners, our rescue is an individual and personal rescue. Though salvation is available to everyone our relationship with the Savior is an intimate and personal one. For us there is only one plan of rescue, that is in and through the atoning sacrifice of the Savior Jesus Christ. He descended below all things to rescue us.
He took upon himself our pains, our illnesses, our sins and our mortality. He is the giver of hope and of life. He paved the way for us to return to our home with our Heavenly Father, to be united with the loved ones who have gone on before us. He stands beside us to take the weight of the burdens that we carry, to dry our tears and to bring us peace. He came to bring us home.
The fabric that runs through all of our lives in this existence is agency, the power to choose for ourselves, to act and not to be acted upon. Even in the depth of the earth the trapped miners had the choice to trust in the plan for their rescue or to wander into the dark regions of the mine looking for another way out.
As each miner stepped into the capsule and closed the door he gave his will over to the rescue plan and to the rescuers on the surface. He became one with the plan and trusted in salvation. This surrender of will is what is required for us in our salvation. We must surrender our will for trust in our Savior Jesus Christ.
Because of the eternal sanctity of man's agency upon which this mortal life was founded, the Savior cannot take from us our will. We are free to choose. The Savior stands beside us waiting to heal our wounds and to lift us into Eternal Salvation, but He can only do that with our invitation.
For me, that time came when I was on my knees in the depths of grief. Like the miners as they stepped inside of the capsule, I was at a pivotal point, should I stay with the things that I knew and try to overcome my challenges with my own strength and knowledge or should I reach out to my Heavenly Father and ask for help?
How could someone as great as God care about me and why should I lay my burdens upon the Savior when there was already so much suffering in the world? I should just bite my tongue, stand up straight and get over it. But like the miners, trapped by the unmovable rock that held them captive, I could not lift the burden of my grief.
Before my eyes, my beautiful, funny, full of life eight year old son was killed in an automobile/pedestrian accident. I held his body as his blood spilled out on the roadway and his spirit slipped away and returned to his Heavenly home. I pleaded with my Heavenly Father to let him stay, but that wasn't in my son's life plan.
I was lost in the dark, overwhelmed with the burden of my grief. I was so weary, unable to rest as the problem of mortality was always before my eyes. I came to know that a broken heart is a true physical feeling. Where once I had a heart there was now only a dark hole that was raw and painful.
It was under this burden that I bent to ask my Heavenly Father for his help and it was there that I met the Savior.
As I appealed to my Father in Heaven, I told Him how weary I was and asked Him to please lift the burden of my grief. Before I could again stand on my feet the weight of my sorrows was lifted from off of my shoulders. I still had to work through the pain and loss, but the unbearable weight was gone.
As I appealed to my Father in Heaven, I told Him how weary I was and asked Him to please lift the burden of my grief. Before I could again stand on my feet the weight of my sorrows was lifted from off of my shoulders. I still had to work through the pain and loss, but the unbearable weight was gone.
It was there that I came to know that the Savior stands by our side waiting to lift our burdens. Waiting only for us to ask Him, waiting for us to lay our burdens upon His shoulders, waiting for us to put our hand in His.
We like the miners, as they pulled the door closed behind them and became one with the rescue capsule, must become one with our Savior and surrender our will to His and trust in His rescue plan for us.
One by one the miners made their solitary ascent up the narrow shaft from the darkness and into the light. They were greeted by their loved ones as the whole world watched and cheered. The rescue plan had succeeded; not one man had been lost. They were redeemed on Oct. 14, 2010, sixty-nine days after the mine collapse, fifty-two days after they had been found alive.
It is my hope that when I make that solitary journey from this life into the next, I will do it in the arms of my Savior. When I arrive in my Heavenly home what joy there will be as I am reunited with those who have made the journey before me. In the meantime I know that my Savior lives and loves me and that He stands beside me.
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