Accidents are truly unknown

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy offers us this remarkable thought: “Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony” (p. 424:5).

My wife and I recently had an opportunity to see the actuality of this statement. We had decided to sell a sailboat we had owned for some time and advertised it online. In the past, our online experience had often been less than pleasant, so for this sale we committed ourselves to treating everyone as we would want to be treated, with a sense that this was the best way to find the right buyer. We were therefore delighted when the successful buyer turned out to be a family looking for precisely what our boat offered. And since they had yet to configure one of their vehicles to tow it, we readily agreed to tow it to their house with our pickup truck – approximately a three-hour drive.

Our trip began smoothly, and all appeared to be working well until we were just a few miles from our destination, when I had a very distinct feeling that something was not right with the trailer. At that time, we were in some heavy, slow-moving traffic. While I really felt we should pull over, a thought came to just continue on slowly to our destination, which we did.

We finally pulled into the buyer’s driveway to be greeted with great smiles, which very quickly faded. What the buyers immediately saw (which we could not see from inside the truck) was that one of the trailer’s wheels was almost completely off the axle. In fact, the instant we took the weight off that wheel, it fell off.

Obviously, we were stunned and incredibly thankful that the wheel failed in their driveway and not while we were driving. As we dug deeper, we discovered that the bearings and retainer for that wheel had failed. When and where this had happened, we had no idea, but as the buyer said, “I see a whole lot of divine intervention here!”

On the drive home, I thought a lot about this experience. Was it just chance that we had made it to their driveway? If we had needed to go farther, would we have been able to successfully drive the longer distance? As a Christian Scientist, I realized this was telling me much about God’s care that I needed to learn. In some respects, I was a bit embarrassed that I had not done any prayerful preparation specifically for this trip, yet we all were protected – ourselves, the buyers, all those driving around us. What was this telling me about God’s protection?

Then I remembered the metaphysical work we had done in putting the sale of this boat on a spiritual basis – on the Golden Rule. I realized that in working to “do unto others as we would have them do unto us,” we had been reflecting divine Truth, Life, and Love – not partially, but fully. It became clear that in God’s work there is no error, and that His work can never be compartmentalized, never limited to one specific event or need; it has to bless all involved. As Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health, “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all” (p. 468:10–11). The Golden Rule is based on God’s infinite, eternal love for each of us, at all times – not just sometimes – and in all places and all situations. Our effort to live by the Golden Rule was not just an attempt to follow a beautiful precept, it was actively engaging and reflecting the power of divine Principle – the laws of Life, Truth, and Love. And it was this power behind the Golden Rule that had so absolutely and abundantly protected all involved that Saturday morning.

So…Had God stepped in that morning and changed the laws of metallurgy so that the wheel would hold that trailer up a bit longer until we got to the buyer’s house? And if we had needed to travel farther, would it have been divine Mind that made it hold up longer? I now knew the answers to these questions before I could even state them – and the answers were obviously “no.” In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy offers this absolute thought: “Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection” (p. 424:10). And in First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany she writes, “In order to apprehend more, we must practice what we already know of the Golden Rule, which is to all mankind a light emitting light” (p. 282:13). Beyond the obvious protection, the blessing for me that Saturday was experiencing this light – actually seeing the power of these divine laws behind the Golden Rule in operation, which had “[changed] the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus [brought] out harmony” (see Science and Health, p. 424:8).