Article July 20, 1974 Issue

The Snakes, the Bees

LINDA ANNE GRIDLEY

On a camping trip I had the opportunity to see that in reality neither thing nor thought can harm us. Here's what happened.

We camped one night in a little tree-sheltered hollow right above a waterfall, and woke to the sound of tumbling water. It was a heavenly day already, even though the morning sun was just beginning to sift through the trees. We had a long hike ahead of us, and everyone read the Lesson-Sermon^{In the Christian Science Quarterly;} before getting up. There were seven of us, five girls and two counselors, all students of Christian Science. I was one of the counselors. Each day as we hiked, ideas gained from the Lesson-Sermon had given us strength, reminded us of God's presence, and protected us. We were seventeen miles from our camp—as the crow flies—but far from human aid, so we naturally looked to God to care for us.

As preparations for breakfast were going on, I left the girls in the care of the other counselor and went up the hill to get some wood and to check out a trail I'd seen. It wasn't really that far away, but straight up and out of sight. As I climbed, I became troubled with the fear of finding a rattlesnake. Many rattlers had been seen in the area, and those that were taken always seemed very large! As I looked at them, I always tried to understand that, in reality, these creatures were harmless. Often I referred to a statement Mrs. Eddy makes in Science and Health: "All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible."^{Science and Health, p. 514;} However, I could never quite shake the shadow of fear that under the next loose rock or in the tall grass just ahead a snake was lurking.