The temperatures were  in triple digits on a dry, windy Wednesday afternoon this past July when the report came of a wildfire burning 25 acres of grassland in a wilderness park near town. Before that evening’s testimony meeting in our branch Church of Christ, Scientist, a church friend who was out of town texted me, asking for calming thoughts. She had heard about the fire, and her house was in the path of the blaze, which had now spread to around five hundred acres. 

I reminded my friend that the nature of evil is to distract us—to attempt to substitute fear for peace in our consciousness. In this case, evil was tempting us to be drawn into the drama—to get reports on the size and nearness of the fire and to fear for the safety of firefighters, our homes, and so on. But underlying all of the fears was the suggestion that there could be a power apart from God, good. 

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy says: “We must learn that evil is the awful deception and unreality of existence. Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit secondary” (p. 207).

I also shared with her a testimony from an issue of the Sentinel. A woman and her husband—both Christian Scientists—were at a mining site when they were trapped by a wildfire. Although their experience was quite intense, they prayed continually and ultimately found their way to safety. The author closed the testimony with, “This testimony is given with the hope that some one who reads it may thereby gain courage to stand firm in God’s strength in time of need, for there is no power apart from God” (Isabel M. Pattison, May 13, 1911). 

Later that evening, I became that person “in time of need.” As I drove home from church, I saw a huge plume of smoke, and an unusually large number of cars were headed away from my destination. Soon flames were leaping up from the side of the road. I was glad church and my talk with my friend had helped me to be mentally prepared, and I began to pray. 

My husband and I and our neighbors were evacuated from our homes and told that there was no way of knowing whether we would ever see our houses again. But instead of thinking of myself and the others as fire evacuees in a situation that was outside of God’s care, I found it comforting to remember that God was already right there and that we could remain untouched by anything that appeared to exist outside of the ever-presence of God, divine Love.

I found it comforting to remember that God was already right there.

Our Father-Mother God was filling all space, and that meant there was space for all. Family members opened their home to us. Friends checked in on us and gave updates on the fire. We chose not to check the reports ourselves but trusted that God was caring for all.

The first night away from home, I prayed as I lay in bed. Then I remembered something I wished I had gotten out of my car before we’d left in my husband’s car. But this quiet thought came to me: “You will see your car again.” In that moment I knew we would see our house again, intact. I knew this was an angel message—a thought from God—and it meant so much to me! I prayed not only for our own home but for the homes around us. Again an angel message assured me that the neighborhood would be safe. I was able to sleep well without any worries.

Christ Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). I knew that the Christ’s comforting message still directs our thinking away from physical evidence to the spiritual facts, reminding us that we are always safe in our Father-Mother God’s kingdom. Despite some concerns expressed by others, I knew that God would take us all the way—and She did! When we and our neighbors were able to return to our homes after almost a week, we found that nearly every building in our community of around fifteen hundred people was intact, with no damage from fire, water, fire retardant, or smoke.

You can’t evacuate the Love zone.

This experience helped me to be both a better spiritual listener, trusting God’s angel messages, and a better healer, more alert to evil’s lies. A few days later, a church member told me that her son, who was a firefighter, had texted her, requesting prayer. Some of his fellow firefighters were trapped by the fire. I texted church friends, and immediately we became prayer warriors, holding firmly to the fact that God was caring for all of Her children. After several hours, we learned that the firefighters were safe. We continued to pray and committed to doing so until the fire was completely contained. 

I thought of my friend who had texted me before our testimony meeting that Wednesday evening. We had talked about the fact that matter—in this case, the fire—can’t touch Spirit, God, or Spirit’s creation, and that we live in divine Love. Despite the closeness of the fire, her home and neighborhood were untouched. As my friend said of God’s infinite ever-presence, “You can’t evacuate the Love zone.”