For me, most movies are fun, a night's entertainment. Some are romantic, some are thrilling, some are filled with action, and some just make me laugh. And some few, rare movies stick with me long after the credits roll.

My husband and I saw one of those rare movies on Saturday. 17 Miracles will be seen by most as a "Mormon movie," but it is so much more than that. It is a story beyond belief, but one that must be believed because it really happened. Not in exactly the way it is portrayed, of course, but all of the seminal events really did occur. It is the story of the Willie handcart pioneers.

You'd think it would be such a sad story—and it is, in parts. But on the whole it is a life-affirming, faith-renewing reminder that even when He doesn't take away our pain or the hard things we go through, God is there. He's there. He's with us, helping us just enough to give us the courage to take the steps we have to take in order to be the people we need to be.

I have long felt that the suffering of those handcart pioneers was largely for us, for our generation, so that we would know what it meant for there to be people who would give everything for what they believed. Now, as their story is made known in this amazing and beautiful way to a whole lot of people who really had no idea, and to others who did have some idea but never saw it quite so clearly before, I believe that more than ever.

I found myself wanting to run home and call the stake president and MAKE him take all the kids who are doing the pioneer trek in our stake this year to see this movie. And then I thought of all the people who AREN'T doing trek who need the message of 17 Miracles—because we're all on trek, aren't we? Just pushing our little handcarts through life and muddling along through storms and wolves and snakes and hills and raging rivers the best we can. And God is there. That's what 17 Miracles did for me—and it's going to stay with me for a long, long time.