My husband and I and another family member had been asked to housesit a beautiful home on the Oregon coast. The night we arrived, we were all weary, and we turned in early to bed. As I fell asleep, I felt especially peaceful, remembering the comforting assurances of God's protecting care that I'd been studying and praying about all day. Suddenly, around 11 p.m., I woke and saw that the outside wall of our bedroom was on fire. I woke my husband, and together we roused the rest of the household and called the fire department.

As we stood outside waiting for the fire trucks, I prayed diligently to see God's harmonious universe all around me, and I held to the certainty that the law of God could and would operate on our behalf. I realized that right then we were under divine law, and that we were thus protected. Soon the fire department arrived and put the fire out.

As we went about the cleanup of the inside, I kept in mind the story of the three Hebrew men in the fiery furnace, who were so well protected that not even "the smell of fire had passed on them" (Dan. 3:27). I knew that the same freedom and protection from fire that they experienced were mine.

When everything had dried, we easily vacuumed up the debris left from putting out the fire. Amazingly, no evidence at all was left of damage or disturbance to the inside of the house. Although the outside of the house had been destroyed, the insurance company completed all repairs and restoration quickly and harmoniously. I thanked God so many times that I had awakened in time. I know that my deep prayers earlier in the day had prepared my thought, even while sleeping, to be listening for God's direction.

Another evidence I had of God's immediate help came at a time when

I needed to finish preparations for dinner. I wanted to make my young houseguest's favorite dessert, so while he napped, I got busy in the kitchen. As I was removing the beaters from the electric mixer, I inadvertently put my fingers into the still-rotating beaters. Although the pain was excruciating, I unplugged the mixer with my free hand and pried the mangled beaters from my fingers. I refused to succumb to my fear, wrapping my hand in a dishtowel while I turned earnestly to God in prayer. I repeated over and over "the scientific statement of being" from Science and Health (see p. 468) until I really understood its meaning.

The pain quickly abated. Within half an hour I had returned to the kitchen, having the full use of my hand. Though the beaters had been twisted beyond repair, I finished preparing the dessert by hand with a sense of joy and gratitude. I never again felt or saw any evidence that my fingers had been injured.

Last fall, I once again experienced a wonderful example of God's law of unfailing protection. We have a family cabin in the woods by a lake, and at noon one day my son called to tell me to pray, and pray now, because the cabins surrounding the lake were on fire. I told him that he also needed to pray. Together we turned wholeheartedly to God, drawing comfort and inspiration from the ninety-first Psalm as we constantly affirmed the power of good over evil. I held to this statement from Science and Health: "... evil can have no place, where all space is filled with God" (p. 469).

That night, we were notified that all four cabins from our section of the lake had been leveled by the fire. Nevertheless, my son and I continued to pray and to affirm God's protection and ever-presence. As Mary Baker Eddy so succinctly puts it: "The God-principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power" (Science and Health, p. 473).

The next morning, we were notified our cabin had, in fact, survived the fire, which had stopped twenty feet from it. We offered the use of our cabin to all who had lost property, so our neighbors were also blessed.

I can never be grateful enough for the healing, protecting, practical power of Christian Science, nor for the precious auntie who demonstrated Christian Science so beautifully in her life and introduced me to it.

Cherie B. Nelson
Auburn, California