One summer while in Salt Lake City for some meetings, my wife and I decided to go to Temple Square to look around. As we drove, I noticed off to the west a big thunderstorm coming in. We arrived just before it hit.

Now, I love thunderstorms. I love to watch them, especially the lightning. Well, when I got there, I wanted to watch that lightning, but I didn’t want to get soaked in the process. Then I got an idea. I ran all the way across Temple Square to the north visitors’ center, and up to the second floor rotunda - the one that has all the windows.

I got there just as the storm hit – and it was a storm! The trees whipped violently in the wind. The rain came down in sheets. It was genuinely funny watching people running for cover. But the most captivating thing of all was the lightning. It wasn’t intermittent. It was almost continuous, and it was close! It even knocked out the power to part of the city. I became thoroughly engrossed in the storm.

All of a sudden I was startled by a voice from behind me and above me.

It said, “Learn of me; listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my spirit, and you shall have peace in me.”

The timing and effect of those words coming over the sound system was powerful. I became cognoscente of where I was. I turned around and found myself – standing directly in front of the statue of the Christus. It was a very unique situation.

Outside, beyond those windows, it was dark, violent, a frightening world. But – but inside where I was, I felt only safety, and peace, and calmness. I had no fear of the lightning. I stepped closer – to the statue, right between His outstretched arms, and looked up into His face. For some reason my eyes were drawn to the prints of the nails in His hands and His feet, and the spear mark in His side.

I can’t tell you what I felt. I don’t know how. But I can tell you this:

I am convinced there is nothing I will ever be able to do to even remotely repay or deserve what He has so freely given. I may be stuck for now in a thunderstorm world, but I don’t have to live running around scared. If I come to the Savior, I will always find peace and security in His shelter, and joy in the arms of His love.