The warning light flashed on the control panel during the long flight,
signaling that the point of safe return would soon be out of sight.
The point of no return was coming up quickly -
a place where the airplane could not return back to its departure spot safely.
The pilot checked to see that the fuel in the aircraft was sufficient.
and determined that the plane would make the rest of the trip without incident.
The captain thought about this simple principle of aeronautics and saw a connection
to how God provides a safely zone for our spiritual salvation.
There is always a point of safe return in the Lord’s eternal plan,
where all of God’s children may come back to Him.
The grace and mercy of God and the atonement of His Son Jesus Christ
makes it possible to repent and receive forgiveness of our sins in this life.
It is never too late to turn back and no obstacle is too great
that can intervene in the remission of mistakes that we create.
There is no dark place that a person can go
where the light of the atonement does not brightly glow.
The love of Christ can encircle us with a spiritual safely net
when we do our best to sincerely repent.
So, we can’t give up hope when we have gone astray –
the Savior wants to heal us and wipe our tears away.
November 2022
Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Point of Safe Return”, April 2007
“Christ came to save us. If we have taken a wrong course, the Atonement of Jesus Christ can give us the assurance that sin is not a point of no return. A safe return is possible if we will follow God’s plan for our salvation….. The Atonement of Jesus Christ causes each person to be accountable for his or her individual sins. We will overcome the consequences of individual sin by claiming the blessings and benefits of the Atonement.
President David O. McKay said, “Every principle and ordinance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is significant and important …, but there is none more essential to the salvation of the human family than the divine and eternally operative principle [of] repentance” (Gospel Ideals [1953], 13). ….. True repentance blesses our lives with the effects of the Atonement: we feel God’s forgiveness and His peace, and our guilt and sorrow are
lifted away; we enjoy the influence of the Spirit in greater abundance; and we are better prepared to live with our Heavenly Father.
President Spencer W. Kimball taught: “The essence of the miracle of forgiveness is that it brings peace to the previously anxious, restless, frustrated, perhaps tormented soul. … God will wipe away… the tears of anguish, and remorse, … and fear, and guilt” (The Miracle of Forgiveness, 363, 368).
J. Devn Cornish, “Am I Good Enough? Will I Make It” ? October 2016
“The great news is that if we have sincerely repented, our former sins will not keep us from being exalted. Moroni tells us of the transgressors in his day: “But as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven.” And the Lord Himself said of the sinner: “If he confess his sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the sincerity of his heart, him shall ye forgive, and I will forgive him also. “Yea, and as
often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me.” If we will sincerely repent, God really will forgive us, even when we have committed the same sin over and over again. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said: “However many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made … , I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink
lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.” (The Laborers in the Vineyard, Ensign, May 2012)
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