Protected by God

NOT long ago I received a telephone call from my seven-year-old granddaughter. She wanted to know, ``If God could, why doesn't he stop accidents from happening.'' Tara was concerned about bad things happening and being vulnerable to them.

I assured her God can and does prevent accidents from happening. He is all-powerful Love and keeps His children safe! But we have our part to play. We need to listen to Him and follow His direction. For instance, I told her, when you're riding your bicycle and come to a crossroad, you hear the thought that tells you to be obedient and act rightly. You know you need to stop and see if any cars are coming. That's a thought from God giving you direction. If you listen and are obedient, you're protected and an accident is prevented.

That seemed to be what Tara needed to hear right then, and after we chatted a bit longer, she went happily about her day. But I found myself continuing to think about her question.

God's protecting care is always right where we are, no matter what seems to be happening. The Psalmist assures us of this, singing of God: ``He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways'' (Psalms 91:11). The ability to listen to God is inherent, is already within each of us.

Spiritual intuitions are God's protecting and guiding thoughts to man. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of the Christian Science Church, describes angels as ``God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality'' (p. 581).

I had an experience that shows how practical and immediate God's angels are. I was sitting at a traffic light, waiting for it to turn green, when the thought came not to start out right away, but to wait just a moment.

The light did turn green, and both the car to my right and I waited several seconds longer. Then I saw a car approaching the intersection from our left that had no intention of stopping at the signal. After it went through the red light, my fellow driver and I looked around, saw that all was clear, and went safely on.

From my daily study of Christian Science and the Bible, I'm learning how God's love for each of us is always available. We're all included in His infinite love. No one is left out. We don't have to earn it; it's ours by natural inheritance as His offspring. And it's a love that is consistent. We can count on it, no matter what the circumstances.

In the Bible, the story of Eutychus, found in Acts, shows how complete God's protection is for us. Eutychus had found a seat on a window ledge in a room crowded with people listening to Paul teach. Around midnight, Eutychus went to sleep and fell from the high window to the ground. He appeared to his friends to be dead, but, the Bible tells us, ``Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.'' Paul then continued speaking until daybreak, when he left. The narrative concludes, ``And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted'' (20:10, 12).

Through study of the Bible in the light that Science and Health throws on it, I'm realizing that my life is governed and protected by divine Principle, God, and that this divine Principle is consistently good. God made everything, and He made it good. Each one of us, as an idea of God, is included in the allness of God's love and goodness. We have a divine right to refuse to accept any action or thought that is not good.

In The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mrs. Eddy states, ``Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort'' (p. 210). Keeping our minds filled with an expectancy of seeing evidence of God's presence, we will become more aware of all the good that is already going on around us. We will see that it is a natural part of our lives. As we follow the examples of those we read about in the Bible and hold fast to what the Bible says, we have the courage to trust God's protecting and loving care just as Paul did.