With the invasion of Ukraine, the world suddenly seems a much more dangerous place. At times like these, I find great comfort in our much-loved hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal, and recently I have been companioning closely with some lines from Hymn 115:
“Holy Father, Thou hast taught us
we should live to Thee alone;
year by year, Thy hand hath brought us on through dangers oft unknown”.
And further on in the hymn, we read:
“We would trust in Thy protecting, wholly rest upon Thine arm, follow wholly Thy directing,
Thou our only guard from harm”.
As we pray about the situation in Ukraine, we can rest in the knowledge that “He knows the angels that you need and sends them to your side, to comfort, guard, and guide”.
Some years ago, I experienced a moment when I was obedient to angel thoughts flowing from God, and impending danger was subsequently averted.
From time to time, as I walked into our local village, I was aware of the smell of gas. Assuming that the local residents would have immediately reported this to the Gas Board, I didn’t think any more about it. Rather unsettlingly, over the next few days, whenever I was in that area, I would again smell gas, but each time I felt sure the problem would have been reported by concerned residents.
One morning, as I walked to the village, there it was again – the unmistakeable smell of gas. This time the angel message was clear – ring the Gas Board, and ring them now! When I got through to them, to my surprise the engineer I spoke to said that no-one had rung them to report this particular gas leak, and then he went on to assure me they would be there within the hour. Not long afterwards, several vans arrived in the area, and the engineers began an extensive investigation into the
problem. I spoke to one of them and mentioned in passing that I was the lady who had reported the leak. He confirmed that it was a very serious fault, and he thanked me for contacting the Gas Board when I did. The centre of Leatherhead was closed for two days while the leak was dealt with, and although it resulted in major disruption and diversions for the town and surrounding roads, much gratitude was expressed by local residents that a potentially damaging problem for the town had come to light and had been dealt with quickly and effectively.
Mary Baker Eddy tells us that angels are “God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect...” How grateful we can be that these angel thoughts are always coming to us from God to “comfort, guard and guide”.