I remember playing with a childhood friend in the attic of her home many years ago and finding a picture of two children walking along a precipice. The picture showed a guardian angel watching over them.

At the time, I was much impressed by the drawing, but I also wondered why I never saw such angels. Later I wondered whether angels were just an imaginary concept or there was something more to this subject of angels.

Far more real today than the presence of angels seem to be the world's looming dangers. The threat of war has a long history in my part of the world. And while was and cold war hostilities in Europe are undergoing promising changes in the 1980s, great concern still remains over such things as the unpredictable threat of terrorism or nuclear accident. There systems may not fail or be bypassed.

Is there some other approach to safety that is realistic enough to protect all of humanity?

Richard von Weizsäcker, a politician and current President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Says that mankind's "power is limited and that beyond that limitation there is a reality over which we have no control. We call it transcendence. According to Christian understanding, God is the basis for meaning and being. Man ultimately owes his being to God, not to himself." ^{Richard von Weizsöcker: Profile eines Mannes (Dûsseldorf: Econ Verlag, 1984), p. 131 .}

Since our human capacity for protection is limited, why shouldn't we search for the reality said to be beyond us but accessible through spiritual understanding? Is it not sensible to strive for this understanding that reveals God as our cause?

At the end of World War II the little town in Germany where I lived was in great danger. All of us, including my parents and I, were in the shelters, awaiting the capitulation, which we hoped would take place without further fighting. Instead the shelling of the town by invading forces began.

I saw how frightened the adults in our shelter were. I remember that suddenly all talking stopped, and then I heard the sound of nearly everyone saying the Lord's Prayer. I was astonished, for I never had heard praying outside of church services. After the prayer it seemed there was a more confident atmosphere, and after a while we realized the shelling had stopped.

Much later I learned that one brave man had ventured out, waving a white sheet. He had headed toward the allied forces, who saw him and stopped the shelling. They moved in without meeting any resistance, and no one was hurt.

The people in the shelter were not just uttering words; they were obviously opening their thought to a higher reality, to God. The last sentence of the Lord's Prayer reads, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." ^{Matt. 6:13.} Forever means throughout all time, whatever the circumstances—even in moments of apparently great danger. Praying this sentence implies acknowledging God's control, His complete control at all times. It means acknowledging God's good, as the Principle, the governing cause, of our existence. This can lead to a new feeling of security.

The Founder of Christianity, Christ Jesus, showed his followers that there truly is a source of security different from what is customarily assumed. He said: "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: If it were not so, I would have toldyou." ^{John 14:1, 2.} When Jesus told his followers not to let their hearts be troubled, there must have been a solid reason behind his words. He explained this reason in his teaching that all have a safe place, a place in their "Father's house," and his healing works powerfully illustrated the point. Using the language of today, a Christian Scientist might say that people can find their security in the truth that God, good, is everywhere. Under His benevolent power there really is no place for intentional or accidental evil.

But what if it seems clearly evident that we are facing dangerous evil? What are we to do? We can acknowledge the presence of God, good. We can strive, through our prayer, to become conscious of the truth that Jesus taught. Like the prodigal son in the Bible story that Jesus told, ^{See Luke 15:11-32 .} we can return to our "Father's house" and accept His love and the presence of His harmonious care.

As in the Bible parable, we soon learn that there are demands made on us if we would seek our heavenly Father's care. We are required, for example, to give up whatever in our life style would cut us off from God. We need to check our thoughts and acts to see whether they are in some way denying the power of God, good. our endeavor to be guided only by good thoughts, intuitions from God in our daily life, enables us to enter step by step into our Father's house and to find safety. As we submit our daily life to the fact of God's omnipotence, we experience in practical ways more of the reality of this omnipotence.

And what does all this have to do with angels? They are our guides into our Father's house and therefore into safety. This becomes clearer as we read the description of angels given in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." ^{Science and Health, p. 581.}

In effect, the intuition to look away from the dangerous situation in the shelter and to pray to God was an angel thought. And the man who might have saved himself by fleeing into the woods listened to the right intuition and instead saved the whole town through his obedience and courage. Following this inner guidance, he was unharmed himself; and the evil, the unnecessary death and destruction, did not take place.

As we consider today the many dangers facing our world, including the possibility of terrorism and nuclear accident, the outlook, from the "normal," limited view, can seem discouraging. But what can hinder us from broadening our view through prayer, through acknowledging the omnipotence of God, good, and learning step by step to receive His angels, or spiritual intuitions? To obey these intuitions in our own individual lives can also help to increase the security of all. Ways may open up unexpectedly to do away with irreconcilable positions. Technical flaws may be discovered before they can lead to disaster.

There is something much more to this subject of angels than a childhood impression. Angels introduce us to a spiritual reality beyond limits, a reality that Christian Science explains is governed by the law of God.

Christa Förster
Christa Förster is a Christian Science practitioner and lecturer living in Bad Soden, Germany.