“I’d rather walk in the dark with God / Than go alone in the light,” wrote Mary Gardiner Brainard, an American religious poet (“He knows”). Her sentiment reminds me of how I felt the first time I traveled out of my home country.
I had all of my earthly belongings with me in my truck, and I was going somewhere I’d never been, hoping for a fresh start in life. But as the sun was setting on the first day of my journey, I realized I was lost. The directions I had printed out before leaving home were to a destination with the same name as the place I’d meant to go, but it was actually an entirely different location. I had spent a whole day driving in the wrong direction.
I was worried, alone, and unsure of where I’d stay the night. But my feeling of God’s closeness to me in that moment was tangible, and I attribute that to the fact that I had recently begun attending church. I was in my late teens and a new student in a Christian Science Sunday School, where I’d been learning about the life of Christ Jesus and his healing ministry.
My thoughts were uplifted by Jesus’ encouragement to “fear not” (Luke 12:32), and other counsel in the Bible to “trust in the Lord with all thine heart” (Proverbs 3:5). Shutting out fearful thinking allowed me to feel the stillness and quiet where I’d learned I could hear God best. Before anything had changed about my circumstances, I began to feel completely overcome by the joy of realizing that I could never be separated from God.
Shortly after this, I was able to make a phone call, and I learned that a friend of a friend lived in a nearby town. I drove to the man’s house and he welcomed me with the warmest hospitality I could have imagined. Then he sent me on my way the next morning with good directions. I made it to my destination feeling filled with gratitude for God’s guidance. Not just the destination, but the journey itself felt like a fresh start in life.
Daily we are reminded of the issues related to home that many people are facing, as they seek better lives in new places or flee from challenging circumstances. For everyone on a journey of uncertainty, God is a resource, a very real help.
The Bible contains stories, from cover to cover, of people in unfamiliar lands, who find God to be their most reliable source of supply. Christian Science helps us understand “the inspired Word of the Bible” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 497). And this has helped me see that an encouraging theme of so many of these Bible stories is that home represents more than a geographic location. It’s a place in consciousness – a realization that we’re truly spiritual, never separate from God. Reaching this understanding is in itself a destination, a “promised land,” and a home.
Christ Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20, 21). These words are a prayer that can open our eyes to inspired solutions that speed our journey to wherever we’re going.
