Last week, the subject of the Lesson Sermon in the Christian Science quarterly, was 'Man'.
These verses from Psalm 91 in the New King James version of the Bible, were in the Golden Text:
9. Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place
10. No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;
11. For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.
I would like to share an experience I had last week where on two occasions, one after the other, I really felt God's protective love and care for me and everyone else on the road.
Driving through our local town one afternoon I found myself behind a German juggernaut pulling an equally huge trailer. The road was busy, as it always is and the driver was driving carefully. I remember thinking how skilled he must be driving this huge vehicle from Europe to the UK and back again. I drove on and a few minutes later, due to changes in the road layout, found myself in front of the lorry.
The car in front of me slowed down to allow a mother, pushing a pram, to cross halfway onto a central island. At that precise moment, the driver of this lorry behind me had either momentarily lost concentration or had completely misunderstood the situation and had to swerve right over to the other side of the road to pass us all. It all happened so quickly and would certainly have seemed to everyone witnessing this, a miracle, because at that precise moment no cars were coming the other way. The lorry then moved back onto the correct side of the road and I realised that if the driver hadn't been able to take this evasive action he would have gone into the back of my car.
It was an extremely alarming experience and for a moment everyone just remained stationary. As we all moved on again, I immediately thanked God for His protection for everyone involved in this incident and acknowledged that 'in Him we live and move and have our being' (Acts 17:28)
As I drove on I found I was driving behind this juggernaut once again. We came up to a roundabout and the driver approached it slowly and carefully. The front section of the lorry cleared the roundabout safely but the trailer mounted the kerb and began to keel over at an incredibly sharp angle. To be honest at that moment I felt absolutely sure that it was going to topple over right in front of me. I was able to brake extremely quickly and again God's protection and control was so much in evidence as somehow the trailer wobbled precariously and then swung back over to the correct upright position and the driver carried on.
When I got home I continued to give my sincere thanks to God for His protection, not just for me but also for everyone else on the road at those times. These two instances might seem to be miraculous and that is how I first considered them but was then reminded of the sentence in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy (p135.6-8)
"The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law."
This unchangeable law and supreme order was clearly evident on the road that afternoon and God was indeed a 'refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble' (Psalms 46:1)