“How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not!” (D&C 43:25). Our Savior Jesus Christ is not one to give up after a single try. When it comes to saving our souls, He will expend every effort, wield every weapon in His arsenal, marshall every argument to His cause, speak with every kind of voice imaginable to implore, entreat, persuade, exhort, or constrain us to swallow our pride and reach out and hold onto His outstretched hand that seeks to snatch us from the abyss. If He can speak to us in a still, small voice and we will listen, then He will rejoice, but if He must instead speak in the stentorian voice of thunder and earthquakes, then He will not hesitate to do so. Whether it is fear or respect or love that convinces us to abandon our self-destruction, it does not matter to Jesus as long as we finally listen to at least one of His voices. It would be better for us all if we would only learn to listen to the voice of mercy, with its perfect and tender mildness, rather than waiting until the voice has changed to lightning and hail storms and fiery wrath and judgement. But whichever voice we eventually choose to listen to, it is comforting nonetheless that our Savior will never stop changing voices until He finds the exact right tone and pitch and volume that will finally resonate with our souls.
