God's control on the highway
MY husband and I were traveling on an interstate highway when four boys drove past us and a line of cars at excessive speed, and then returned to the line moments before an oncoming car was about to collide with them. Immediately I reacted with some remarks about recklessness, the endangering of the boys' own lives and the lives of others, finishing my discourse with a lament about teen-agers. But I sincerely thank God that the moment the words were out I began to refute them vehemently. I thank God that His presence roused me to see quickly that, in a fundamental sense, I was misjudging the boys. Yes, their action had been reckless, but I felt a need and responsibility to acknowledge that God had made man in His spiritual likeness and that reckless driving was not indicative of these boys' true nature. God's children do not have reckless, adolescent minds or intolerant elderly minds but reflect the judgment, wisdom, caring, and perception of the one divine Mind that they exist to express.
Sometime much later I looked up. The boys' car was traveling beside ours, and they were smiling and waving to us. Surprised, I turned to my husband and said,``What was that all about?'' My husband grinned and said, ``Don't you remember? They are the boys who passed us before and disturbed you so that you spent quite some time loving them. They obviously felt the love!''
About an hour later, as we approached an exit ramp, there were the boys--waving.
The incident has remained a precious lesson. Not a word passed between us, but what a proof of the power of God's love! It was God's love that had changed my thinking from criticism to the acknowledging of His omnipresence and what His presence means to each of us.
When Jesus was asked what ``the great commandment'' was, he responded: ``Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.... And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.''1
We are loving God and proving His presence with us as we reject characteristics that deny Him--impatience, irritation, fear, anger--and claim and express qualities He has given life to, such as patience, tranquillity, courage, gratitude, and joy. When driving we can realize that God-derived qualities testify to the true nature of others as well as of ourselves. We're supportive of the driving experience of others, and of our own, as we're faithful to the higher concept of man as God's image. God's qualities are not influenced by or dependent on age, drugs, moods, or emotions.
We will see examples of protection on the highway as we understand that God is governing all, that His good prevails in His likeness. And we shouldn't be surprised to find daily proof of other drivers' courteous concern when we need directions or of their patience and protectiveness as we go on our way.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: ``The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good.''2
Let's recognize and supply our brother's needs by acknowledging the presence of God and His absolute government of man. It's important that we realize that God is in control of all, at all times. And that the man of His creating is not a careless or reckless mortal but expresses divine wisdom and love. Striving daily under every circumstance to understand God's control of man, we will be in obedience to the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.
1Matthew 22:37, 39. 2Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 518. You can find more articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. Psalms 40:11