“I felt the warmth and care of God all around me”
/The temperature was falling, the roads were icy, the sleet was pouring down the windshield of my car, and the day was coming to an end, but I had two more hours of driving ahead of me until I reached home.
I was on top of a mountain pass beginning the descent when it became apparent that the tractor trailer in front of my car was losing control and sliding back and forth. My car was no longer responding to my steering or my brakes. Looking in the rearview mirror I saw another 18-wheeler begin to turn sideways, sliding toward me, and I noticed other cars had slid off the road into the ditch.
My first thought was based on fear and matter beliefs – I felt I was going to be squished between the trucks. No! Unacceptable! I knew I had a resort to a higher Law. I knew immediately what I needed was a change of consciousness.
Mary Baker Eddy asks on page 179 of Miscellaneous Writings, “Is our consciousness in matter or God? Have we any other consciousness than that of good?”
I felt as if I needed to make a choice right then and there. I took my hands off the steering wheel and put them calmly on my lap. I said out loud, “I choose God”. I never again was tempted by doubt and fear-directed thoughts to look out of the window to see what was happening.
I became mentally engaged in prayerfully correcting every scary belief that came to my consciousness. First, I was aware of a sense of lack of sunlight or warmth to help humanly melt the ice on the road. I often describe the presence of God as a warm blanket, a comforting sense, a mental atmosphere where all is well because the Principle of pure goodness is operating throughout infinity. I remembered reading about this atmosphere in No and Yes page 9, “Divinely defined, Science is the atmosphere of God.” I acknowledged that I could trust the truth of the Science of Being, feeling the warmth of divine Science as present, on the scene, and the atmosphere surrounding me was pure Love. No coldness there. This spiritual consciousness knows no lack, being infinite Love. There is no separation of the Christian Scientist from the Science, so right there in the darkness of doubt and fear we can acquaint ourselves with God and “be at peace.” I felt the warmth and care of God all around me, including the other drivers.
I thought of the unrestricted activity of the properties of Mind functioning as adhesion, cohesion and attraction. Mary Baker Eddy says they belong to Principle. I understood Principle to be God, omnipotent Mind. I was trusting this infinite, good Spirit, to be all substance, and that the substance would be liquid or ice through the will of Mind. I understood that Principle would operate independently of ice or water conditions. I knew that with every rotation of the wheels of all the vehicles, each of the 40 tires came naturally together and adhered to the surface of the road regardless of ice or rain conditions on the surface of the road. All was well. I looked out the window now because I was aware of a sense of stability surrounding the cars. The dashboard was recording a new outside temperature of 34 degrees. What a difference that made. All cars and trucks came back under control of their drivers. My two friends driving the trucks pulled over to the side of the road. They opened their cab doors and stood on the top step yelling out to the universe “that was a miracle,” screaming with joy. One yelled, “I could not believe we went through two S-curves without control of the steering. It was a miracle!”
I opened my car door and stood looking pretty small next to their 18-wheelers and called out to them saying, “That was no miracle, that was the power of God taking care of us all.” They asked, “Lady, I saw you looking down at your lap the whole time. Did you just close your eyes? “ I answered, “NO, I prayed.”
I said goodbye and went on to finish my trip. They both blew their horns in celebration of the safety demonstrated that day.