In shakespeare's play King Henry IV, the character Hotspur comments, ". . . out of this nettle danger we pluck this flower safety." King Henry IV, Part 1, Act ll, scene 3 .
Brave words, but they didn't prove sufficient protection against court intrigue and the hazards of battle. Sadly, human means of avoiding danger don't always bring success. A more spiritually based approach to life finds safety in something more consistent—the laws of harmony established by the Supreme Being. Speaking of God's laws, Mary Baker Eddy writes: "Security for the claims of harmonious and eternal being is found only in divine Science." Science and Health, p. 232.
I first learned about these divine laws in the Christian Science Sunday School. I learned there that God is totally loving, that He is Spirit, and that each of us is the spiritual effect of divine Principle. We are controlled by this Principle, and contrary to human belief, we're not material entities, subject to material laws. Principle is responsible for its "ideas," provides for their welfare, maintains them through its spiritual laws. So they are not subject to chance. These truths are provable.
I was able to trust them when I was living in a war zone. During the hostilities, a type of bomb was being employed that was preset for the target. The fear was that if you happened to be in that prescribed path, there was nothing you could do to avoid the blast.
I began to pray for my own safety and for that of the community. I remembered how people in the Bible had turned to God in confident and humble prayer when they were faced with danger. And He had saved them, often in unimagined ways. In First Chronicles Jabez asked, ". . . keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!" The account continues, "And God granted him that which he requested." I Chron. 4:10.
Thinking about God's love and care for His creation considerably lessened my fears. I continued to pray, however. I listened intently for God's voice. Then this passage from the Bible came to mind: "There is a path which no fowlknoweth, and which the vulture's eye hath not seen." job 28:7. I felt sure that God's children couldn't be a prey to destructive elements such as hatred, because our path is in the omnipresence of divine Love. It's unknown to and unseen by evil of any kind. From that moment on, I went about my daily routine without fear.
A few days later a rocket bomb fell four doors away from us on the only unoccupied house on the block, demolishing it. I was not at home at the time, but a relative, returning from shopping, was surrounded by flying glass and debris as all the windows were blown out by the blast. She wasn't even scratched, and nobody in the vicinity was even injured.
In the remaining years of the war, I felt ongoing protection by drawing on this deep understanding that God is our constant safeguard from harm. One night, as I returned home late, a bombing raid had begun, and the antiaircraft guns were in action. I stepped off the bus, and a large piece of sharapnel fell at my feet after narrowly missing my head. On another occasion, when incendiary bombs were raining from above, they landed in the street instead of on the roof and were quickly extinguished. Also, the local church, where volunteers met each night to pray, escaped damage.
Confronting the nettle of danger with spiritual truth has shown me that the flower of safety can be plucked from the midst of it.
