From Melvin J. Ballard, a previous post ‘The Cost’: We cannot stand by and listen to those cries without its touching our hearts. The Lord has not given us the power to save our own. He has given us faith and we submit to the inevitable, but he had the power to save, and he loved his Son, and he could have saved him. . . . continuing:
He might have rescued him from the insult of the crowds. He might have rescued him when the crown of thorns was placed upon his head. He might have rescued him when the Son, hanging between two thieves was mocked with, “Save yourself and come down from the cross. He saved others; himself he cannot save.” He listened to all this. He saw that son condemned; he saw him drag the cross through the streets of Jerusalem and faint under its load. He saw the Son finally upon Calvary; he saw his body stretched out upon the wooden cross; he saw cruel nails driven through hands and feet, and the blows that broke the skin, tore the flesh and let out the life’s blood of his Son. He looked upon that.
In the case of our Father, the knife was not stayed, but it fell and the life’s blood of his Beloved Son went out. His Father looked on with great grief and agony over his Beloved Son, until there seems to have come a moment when even our Savior cried out in despair: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
In that hour I think I can see our dear Father behind the veil looking upon these dying struggles until even He could not endure it any longer; and, like the mother who bids farewell to her dying child, has to be taken out of the room, so as not to look upon the last struggles, so he bowed his head, and hid in some part of his universe, his great heart almost breaking for the love that he had for his Son. Oh, in that moment when he might have saved his Son, I thank him and praise him that he did not fail us, for he had not only the love of his son in mind, but he also had love for us. I rejoice that he did not interfere, and that his love for us made it possible for him to endure to look upon the sufferings of his Son and give him finally to us, our Savior and Redeemer. ~Melvin J. Ballard, The Gift of the Atonement (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book, 2002), 58-59
