Article August 18, 2008 Issue

READ YOUR SPIRITUAL BAROMETER

BY LYNN G. JACKSON

A barometer measures atmospheric pressure. It can forecast short-term changes in the weather, even when it looks as if conditions are stable, with no sign of a change coming. The barometer might predict rain on a bright sunny day, or sunshine when it's cloudy and dark, defying what you might guess would happen.

Mary Baker Eddy discussed this phenomenon in Science and Health: "The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of material sense. On the eye's retina, sky and tree-tops apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet and mingle. The barometer,—that little prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of the senses,—points to fair weather in the midst of murky clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for himself" (p. 122).

Kind of like a barometer, one of our daughters is known for spotting "strange clouds." She got this reputation as a second grader, when on family vacations she'd stare out the car window into the space she hopes to visit someday. On at least 80 percent of those trips, she was known to say, "Daddy, that cloud out there looks strange!" And we learned that if she said that, we were in for it—whether it was a tornado in western Kansas, a smoke cloud in Montana, a dust storm in west Texas, or a flood in south Texas. As her parents, those were the last words we wanted to hear while driving down the highway. But it's important to be alert to signs of danger, in order to pray about them.