Description

The Lord Will Open a Way

With his wife Mary standing by his side, Robert Henderson of Pennston, Scotland was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Immediately after his baptism, hands were laid on his head and he was promised among other things that he would emigrate to Zion. He would come to Utah, to these mountains. That was virtually impossible. Robert Henderson was a poor Scottish coal miner, living in poverty. There was no way that was ever going to happen – at least according to him.

Nevertheless, he believed and he continued faithful in his native land and life went on. One night, Robert came home from working in the mine and announced to his wife that there was trouble in the mine. There were evidently noxious gasses rising up in the mine and there was a need to dig a new ventilation shaft, or the miners were going to walk off the job. He said that the mine company was putting out a bid for someone to dig the shaft. According to the account Mary, his wife said: “You should bid on that job.” Robert’s response evidently was “Me? Are you kidding? I don’t have tools. I don’t have equipment. I don’t have a crew. I can’t do it.” And yet Mary insisted.

I don’t know whether that was out of obedience or frustration but for one reason or another Robert agreed to put in a bid. To his dismay, his bid was accepted. Can you picture Robert Henderson getting up one morning at the crack of dawn with a pick over each shoulder and walking out towards the mine? According to the accounts, it appears he just walked up on top of a hill over the mine shaft and stuck his shovel in and started to dig. He dug, and he dug, and he dug until he was down so deep, digging by himself, that he couldn’t throw the dirt out of the hole. What am I going to do now? He thought.

He kept digging and all of a sudden the shovel hit rock. As he opened up and exposed the rock, there was a crack in the rock – a big crack. He cleared the crack and discovered that it was a fault and went all the way down to the mineshaft. When he opened it up it provided better ventilation than any shaft anyone could possibly have dug.

The mine owners were so grateful to Robert Henderson that even though he had worked only a few days on what should have taken him months, he was paid the full amount. Shortly after that, on May 30, 1863, Robert and Mary Henderson set sail from Liverpool, England on the ship “Sign Ashore” and came to Utah.

I love that story because if there’s something that’s right that you’re called to do, I believe the Lord will open the way even for people like us that are just common ordinary sinners. The Lord will open the way.

Source: Dr. Kenneth Alford, professor of church history and doctrine at BYU – Great-great-great grandson of Robert and Mary Henderson.