Help for oil spills

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico tears at one’s heart. Even with all our technology, honest desire, and earnest effort, we seem so helpless. To all appearances we need immediate answers.

Many are praying. We ask guidance from divine intelligence to know what to do and how to do it.

The spill apparently started with an accident. Does God know accidents? Does He cause or allow them?

The Bible records deepest wisdom, beyond human reason. It says God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity” (Hab. 1:13).

To some thinkers this suggests God’s control of the universe. It’s an unusual view. But when we yield to that spiritual view, unusual things happen. The Bible tells of a man who lost an ax in some water (see II Kings 6:1–7). Through the prayers of a prophet who discerned God’s control of the universe, the iron ax head floated to the surface. Impossible? Yes, far beyond us. But apparently not impossible to God, divine Mind or intelligence.

God has solutions. They can be discerned. He is all Love. He doesn’t allow man to be helpless. He never would put mankind in that position. Always there are practical, immediate answers. As we pray meekly, those solutions occur to thought. Sometimes they are inventive and innovative. Other times they are simple and obvious. But God never leaves humanity outside His care.

Every humble prayer is important. The founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy, discerned, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 494). Right now, God is leading and saving us and this situation.

For an Italian translation of this article, see The Herald of Christian Science.