As I pray each day with the consciousness of our protection and complete safety from every ill, Mary Baker Eddy’s phrase “be it ever so severe” feels prominent in my affection for mankind. In its entirety it reads: “Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149–150).
The words “will guide thee” were certainly present in an experience I had several years ago during a severe winter storm. My young daughters and I were traveling at night along icy, snowy roads, and our car was being severely buffeted by high winds. The snow was coming so fast and furiously that visibility was minimal. With about 50 miles yet ahead to reach home—traveling at ten miles per hour—the experience was threatening, with deserted roads and increasing blizzard conditions. While my younger daughter slept in the back seat, I affirmed out loud together with her older sister the truths of God’s all-presence and the reality of our actual living and moving about within divine Love’s infallible and infinite presence.
At one point we were crossing a long country bridge with no guard rails, just creeping through the snow, surrounded by black water on both sides. Fear tried to intrude and felt aggressively present, but that very moment I knew more strongly than ever that “All [was] infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation ….” This statement is from “the scientific statement of being,” found in the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 468), and it formed the basis of our praying together that night.
