One of the great themes of the Bible is that, even in the most devastating and wanton of calamities, we can find a way out through prayer. We discover that God is at hand to help. He is there to love us, to comfort us, to provide for us. He is there to give our hearts courage to rebuild, to renew our lives. As ancient Hebrew psalm writer once told his countrymen and women, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

The pure trust of this devout Hebrew Psalmist made him utterly intrepid—even in the face of disaster. "Therefore will not we fear," he wrote, "though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." And of his beloved Jerusalem he said, "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early" (Ps. 46:1–3,5).

As we read the Hebrew poet's words in the Bible now, thousands of years later, we just feel in our hearts that they're true. They'd been true in primeval time, when God preserved Noah and his family during a catastrophic flood. They'd been true Moses saved thousands of Jews from slavery in Egypt. They'd been true when the whole city of Jerusalem was flattened and burned by enemy troops—and then rebuilt again.

And God was "a very present help in trouble" when a meek yet extraordinary man named Jesus walked so closely with God that he was known as Christ, or "the Anointed One." He instantly silenced a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee. He fed hungry crowds with nothing more than a few scraps of food—and the power of his holy love. He healed multitudes upon multitudes of sick folk (see Mark 1:33, 34, for example).

But the Bible's promise of relief from tragedy is also for all of us today. It's for the people of Kobe. It's for everyone in Japan who was touched in any way by the violent January earthquake that took over five thousand lives and left hundreds of thousands homeless. And it's for the millions of people all over the world who've been praying for and with the people of Japan.

God's help comes to us in this age the same way it came to the people in the Bible: through prayer, through a humble willingness to seek divine direction, through spiritualization of thought and motive. Perhaps the words we pray with don't really matter so much. What matters most is the spiritual power and reality behind the words. What matters is what we feel—the love for God and for each other that warms our hearts. Our deepest prayer comes from loving God with such devotion and humility that we feel His presence right with us, no matter what anyone says to the contrary. (And there are always plenty of people ready to say—especially right after a disaster—that there isn't God or that He shouldn't let such things happen.)

Now, maybe you've never doubted God's power or goodness or love for His universal family of children. But a few times I have. One of these times was when I returned to my hometown of Miami just after Hurricane Andrew. Devastation was everywhere. Miles upon miles of homes were crushed. A whole city just to the south of Miami was homeless. It was brutally hot and humid. At first, I wondered how God could possibly be there.

But within a few hours, God spoke to me. He spoke softly, unmistakably—and with such kindness. Not in words, but in the faces and the actions of the people around me. Never have I seen such universal caring. People you'd never even met before helped you and shared their supplies with you. Everyone was helping everyone else. And well-wishers—sometimes from thousands of miles away—sent gifts and encouragement.

To me, there was only one way to explain all that love and courage and help. And that was to understand that God had initiated it. Only the Father and Mother of the universe could have fostered such an onrush of unselfishness. And somehow, all this feel God's healing power and love.

And no wonder we felt God's presence and love. God is Love, as the Bible says. He is infinite, all-embracing Love. And "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and god in him" (I John 4:16). So when you're giving or receiving tangible evidence of mercy and help, you're finding evidence of god, right in your "midst." As Mary Baker Eddy once wrote, "When we are willing to help and to be helped, divine aid is near" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany. p.166).

Of course, much more labor still lay ahead for the citizens of Florida. But the impetus for reconstruction had begun. And from that point recovery went forward steadily.

In the Bible, Jesus told a little story that compared a fig tree to a new beginning. Calamities may come, the Master explained, just as winter strips the fig tree of its leaves and its fruit. But spring must inevitably bring new fruit (see Luke 21:10-11,25-33). And, it's interesting that in the case of the fig tree, the early fruit comes even before the new leaves appear! Then, a few months later, a late harvest yields a Second crop of figs.

New beginnings and fruits of renewal come from God. They show forth His redemptive power working in each of us. There's no stopping this fruition—just as there's no stopping the buds of spring and the blossoms of summer.

And if we look closely enough—understand through spiritual sense the source and substance of this renewal—we see that God was never part of the destruction or evil. That the divine reality actually precludes all evil. That God's universe, including man, is wholly spiritual, good, eternal, and couldn't possibly be harmed or destroyed in His care. These spiritual truths, although appearing contrary to the limited, mortal sense of things. are real and are what most empower our own efforts to help, to love, to heal.

These truths are revealed through Christ—the purely divine manifestation of God, which activates revival and progress in all of us. And the Christ is already generating renewal in Japan—heartening her people, comforting her families, rebuilding her communities. The Christ is stronger by far than earthquake or wind or storm. It's stronger than colliding oceanic plates or a centuries-long pattern of "natural" disasters. The Christ is universal. It reveals God's omnipotence. And it can, this very moment, remake and transform every single one of us.

Mary Metzner Trammell

PSALMS

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

Psalms 28:7