Having grown up in Texas, I was praying about how to make sense of the recent floods, the lives lost, and the families rebuilding without their loved ones. But I found myself getting nowhere, and I realized I was getting swept up in fearful thoughts about what is clearly a tragic event.
From a spiritual perspective, however, there’s a different view we can reach for. The Bible says that God was not in the earthquake, wind, or fire that Elijah experienced (see I Kings 19:11, 12), and similarly we can know that God was not in the floods. “God is love” (I John 4:8). God causes no tragedy, and He knows no tragedy, because He knows only the love He has for His entirely spiritual creation.
When we find ourselves trying to make sense of dark moments, the reason we get nowhere is because there is no making sense of darkness. Darkness is, after all, only the absence of light. There is no strength, power, or substance to darkness, and if we were to gather all of the darkness in the world, it wouldn’t be able to put out the light from a single candle. The light of Truth is shining everywhere, even in what seem to be the darkest moments.
Following the floods, experiences from those hours have been reported. Many people exhibited an extraordinary amount of courage, despite fearful circumstances. Some of those who did not survive risked their own personal safety for others, and these acts of bravery are deeply moving. They’re a glimpse of that light that was and is shining everywhere, despite appearances to the contrary – a glimpse of everyone’s true nature as the spiritual image of God.
The Bible reminds us that “perfect love casteth out fear” (I John 4:18). Fearlessness is a spiritual quality that comes from God. It is impelled by divine Love, a synonym for God, and reflected in our true, spiritual nature.
Instead of seeing (and celebrating) every expression of God’s grace in these difficult moments, we might be tempted to focus on the tragedy alone. But the Christ light dawns on human consciousness to help us see the good that is real, eternal, present, and always being expressed. We can find comfort as we know that no one is ever without this divine light for a single moment, including those in the most extreme circumstances.
The founder of this news organization, Mary Baker Eddy, was no stranger to tragedy. She lost her husband to yellow fever early in their marriage. Later, after discovering Christian Science, she wrote, “Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstration of the facts of Soul in Jesus’ way resolves the dark visions of material sense into harmony and immortality. Man’s privilege at this supreme moment is to prove the words of our Master: ‘If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death’” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 428).
What we’re all being invited to do now in our prayers is to see the undying goodness of those who have passed on. The light of each individual’s life is to be treasured and remembered. One of the best ways we can honor those individuals is to understand that their eternal identity as a unique expression of God is still moving forward, completely spiritual and unchanged.
God’s goodness was going on during those moments of the floods, expressed in courage, fearlessness, and love. And it’s going on now, too.
