Alma 26: 17-20

17 Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state? 18 Behold, we went forth even in wrath, with mighty threatenings to destroy his church. 19 Oh then, why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair? 20 Oh, my soul, almost as it were, fleeth at the thought. Behold, he did not exercise his justice upon us, but in his great mercy hath brought us over that everlasting gulf of death and misery, even to the salvation of our souls. I love Ammons verbiage and the imagery it evokes here, "...as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state...". Snathced indeed! Snatched as if paralyzed and chained to a train track with a speeding locomotive barreling down the track. And so it is with all of us, regardless of our degree of darkness. We are all darkened, sinful men and woman. We all sin, and come short of the Glory of God. If any man say that he has no sin, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. And what would have been our fate if God had not snatched us up from the oncoming train of the consequence of sin? Our "...awful, sinful, and polluted state?" Like Ammon, I shudder at the thought! I cannot even image what my life would be like if he had not snatched me from my darkened and fallen state in 1982, and snatched by the same means as were these Lamanites- through people who were used as instruments in God's hands as were Ammon and his fellow servants. Ammon poses another poignant question- "Oh then, why did he not consign us to an awful destruction, yea, why did he not let the sword of his justice fall upon us, and doom us to eternal despair?" And he answers himself, that it is because of "...his great mercy...". And surely our God is a merciful God! He has no desire to condemn us! He sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved! The false perception that God is a vengeful God, just waiting to catch us in sin to justifiably punish us is a lie, probably promulgated by the father of lies. He does not want to catch us, but snatch us! He does not want to condemn. That is why in His glorious plan of happiness He provided a Savior from the beginning. The law and it's consequent justice are all necessary for our growth, and to fulfill all righteousness- for God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. Yet, he is willing to put on the Blinders of the Atonement if we repent! He is willing to forgive and remember them no more. If we will but humble ourselves and come to him, realizing our awful state without him. Oh, that repentance may always be found in us. That we might always remember God's perfect love and mercy when we are too ashamed to come unto him, and not believe the Adversary of our soul's whisperings to quickly hide.