Blown off course?

Last fall high winds and a big rain blew this little friend to our church doorstep. With disheveled feathers and a wobbly stance it was gathering equanimity on a Sunday morning as we arrived at church. Sometimes, having withstood blustering circumstances ourselves, we may be struggling to get back on course.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy (who was no stranger to buffeting winds of criticism and other untoward circumstances in founding Christian Science) talks about a “spiritual wedlock”. To me this could indicate being anchored safely in divine Love’s peace and comfort, regardless of the situation.

She says: “The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers: 'Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb’s wife, — Love wedded to its own spiritual idea.'"  (SH page 574:27-3)

Sometimes it seems like we have been blown off course – we feel lost, things may look hopeless and we can’t seem to get our bearings again. That’s when we have to get quiet and listen for the gentle whisper in thought of divine Love’s presence. Actually, we are already in that sheltered place because it’s a place in our thought. “In this divinely united spiritual consciousness, there is no impediment to eternal bliss, – to the perfectibility of God’s creation.” (SH page 577:9)

And so, as this little bird did, we find our God-given dominion – whatever we need to free us to express the good qualities we naturally have. “The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for heaven.” (SH page 57:24)