Early one afternoon on a sultry day in Northern Canada, I headed down to the lake to fertilize the lilies I had planted the previous summer. The lake was unusually calm, very still for the middle of the day. The rain would inevitably come and give the lilies a drink. After fertilizing and weeding, I looked up and was totally transfixed by the blackest-blue sky I had ever seen.

Earlier that morning I had pondered the word, preserved in the Christian Science Bible Lesson, titled “God the Preserver of Man.” To know that I am preserved by God, I’ve learned to trust that God is with me each day. God is not a far-off, sometimes present God, but God is always expressing tangible love, positive direction, and tender care.   

Preserved means to me that God’s work is complete. In my prayer, I cherished how God had already “pre-served” me with good, with harmony, with healing in every facet of my day, even before I venture forth—it’s a God-planned, God-preserved day. God is the great architect, and His work, His designs, cannot be interrupted, disturbed, or destroyed. My joy is to witness what God sees and knows to be in perfect harmony. Each day gives me the opportunity to align thought with the design and outline from God. 

This realignment may happen many times a day. But each time, fear, anger, or any disturbance is replaced in thought by what God has already pre-planned, pre-served. Over the years, I have grown to trust God’s presence more. God’s design has never changed, even though I sometimes appear to have stepped away from God’s harmony.  

That afternoon, as I stood staring at the sky across the lake, the thought came to me with great urgency, “MOVE!” It came so forcefully that I ran back to the cabin immediately. Before I even got there, it was hailing, and there was the most forceful wind I’d ever felt. I ran to shut the living room and the sunroom windows. As I went, I yelled at the storm, “You have no power. All power belongs to God. God is omnipotent right here, right NOW!” I was so convinced of God’s omnipotence and power because God had always been there for me. God had led me through difficult periods and preserved me and my family many times.  

With that, two trees fell on the roof above my head, and seconds later an 80–90-foot pine tree was ripped, 20 feet above the ground and propelled into the living room, right where I had been seconds earlier. And then, within two to three minutes, the storm was gone. And all was quiet.

I couldn’t go out the front door or the back because of the limbs and trees strewn in front of the doors. I just stood still, determined not to be impressed with what the storm had left me. I had no car. I was alone; no one else was around for miles. I stood declaring out loud I had what I needed, right NOW. I was “pre-served.” Christian Science had taught me that harmony is home and is present right where I am. And home is a spiritual power and a place we always have with God. God’s place was with me, then and always. Declaring these truths helped me stay calm and trust God’s power to be manifested.

“Father, show me what to do” was my next thought. As I listened for an answer, I realized that the phone was out, but my cellphone still worked. I called a contractor, who had helped me in the past, and he said he would be right out. He came with his chain saw and took the tree out of the living room and the trees off the roof and stayed for hours, working and cleaning up the debris. 

I thanked God for this evidence of His immediate help and care.  One by one, other things were taken care of. The power lines were reinstalled to the house. A master woodsman with a chain saw was able to bring order to the 15 trees that were down or hung up around my house.

God is not a far-off, sometimes present God, but God is always expressing tangible love.  

During this time I spent most of the mornings in prayer and study, listening for the steps that were needed for that day. I felt the presence of God in many tangible and practical ways. I was learning that if the problem is big, the answer is always bigger. The Apostle Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:39). No storm could separate me from harmony, order, and unfoldment of good. As answers unfolded each day, my confidence in God’s solutions grew. 

The storm was a microburst, a wind sheer at low altitude, that can pack a punch up to 240 miles per hour. A cousin had said that it would cost thousands of dollars to clear the brush away. I continued to put my trust in God, and angel-answers were forthcoming. If one prays for angel messages and one needs horses, God is on it! I found a farmer with two wonderful Belgians, and in no time they had pulled the trees all out to the road, where the wood was milled. I found people who could use all the wood, and the major expense was paid by this transaction. And at the end of the summer I had an extra renter, and the additional income covered all the expenses I had incurred. 

The results of the storm were all gone within a month. “What cannot God do?” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 135). This whole experience was proof to me that “no power can withstand divine Love” (Science and Health, p. 224). 

I realized later that where I had been standing by the lake a 100-pound canoe had been picked up and propelled 60 feet up the hill, and the tree that had been propelled into the living room was right behind me. I thanked God for that urgent demand to “MOVE” that had sent me running and preserved me. It was a powerful example to me of how “. . . Love can make an angel entertained unawares” (Science and Health, p. 574). 

The prayerful work with which I start my day has taken on a new sense of urgency with this profound opportunity to grow and learn.

What cannot God do to preserve this day!?