Not long ago we happened to see a program on WWII, on the Pacific campaign. The battle of Iwo Jima, to be exact. Although I knew about the fierce fighting that went on there because of a close friend of my mother's who served in the Marines and shared some of his experience, something new came to light. The narrator said that 1 out of 3 Marines was either killed or wounded. 1 out of 3!
I couldn't help thinking about Frank who came through that murderous conflict with not a scratch. Many pounds thinner, he said, but this was all. And to what did this boy (he was only 18 when he enlisted) owe his deliverance? To the conviction he had gained from Christian Science that God was always with him. He was in fact a student in the Sunday School when he joined up, and what he had learned there brought him through intact, he said.
And the other WWII experience involved a friend of ours in Australia. Paul served in the Solomon Islands and was also a lifelong student of Christian Science. To what did he attribute his safety through months of intense jungle fighting? It was this, he once told me. I new that "God and I are not two, but one; and that one is God."
Where did this concept of God-ever-with-us come from? Paul said it was primarily this statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with God, and for this we owe him endless homage." (page 18)
As these two friends proved, when we feel up against it and the situation appears dire, one who trusts in God's care, who as the Bible assures us time and time again, is an ever-present, unfailing help in trouble, can come through unscatched.
Speaking of Christ Jesus, it is obvious that our Master fully realized the inseparability of man from God. He taught that man is God's own child, safe in love of his Creator, regardless of appearances. I've thought often of the time when Jesus was in a crowd. Some of the people intended to throw him off a hill. And yet, we read that he passed through the midst of them, totally untouched.
The Psalmist sang, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." (Psalms90:1) It is for this reason that in truth we are eternally exempt from harm of any kind. I like think about this: we have actually never been apart from our divine source, God--not even for a moment. As His offspring, living and moving in Him, we are and have always been preserved by His unerring laws of order, safety, exemption from dangerous conditions. What a potent help this is in daily life, I have found.
Frank, who was highly decorated but wouldn't own up to his heroism if faced with a firing squad, lives near us, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. We see him from time to time. And Paul, who has passed on now, has left us a lovely reminder of his friendship. Atop a bookcase is a carved platypus he carved himself out of rare Tasmanian wood. And we have his inspiring poetry. I feel sure Paul is creating still, life for him and others made even more fruitful by that unseen, felt Presence so many God-trusting individuals know.
A Presence you, too, can know and rely upon.
