“He who guards you never sleeps”

Timothy James Sutton
from The Christian Science Sentinel, October 16, 1995

Many people are seeking ways to protect themselves and their families from a society they perceive to be growing more violent. Some take self-defense courses, and others buy guns, but the fact is that these actions can’t assure us of security. Dependable safety can be found, however, as we place our reliance firmly on God’s omnipotent and omnipresent loving care, forever guarding our families and homes.

In the James Moffatt translation of the Bible, Psalm 121 states: “I lift mine eyes to the mountains; ah, where is help to come from? Help comes from the Eternal who made heaven and earth. … He who guards you never sleeps.” And the psalm concludes, “The Eternal will guard you from all harm, he will preserve your life; he will protect you as you come and go, now and for evermore” (verses 1, 2, 7, 8).

The powerful statements of God’s care for us (His children) in this psalm and others declare that God is with us, protecting us from every form of evil. And in the book of Isaiah is another clear statement of God’s all-powerful, loving care for His children: “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper” (54:17). This was illustrated in an incident that happened to my family.

On a recent Fourth of July, late in the evening, many of our neighbors were still setting off fireworks in celebration of the holiday. We were asleep when I was wakened by several very loud bangs. I sat up and listened for a moment, then went back to sleep. In the morning when I went into the bathroom I noticed a dusting of plaster from the drywall. It took a few seconds to realize what that meant. Then I turned to the wall and found the hole where a bullet had come through it.

My thoughts immediately turned to our children. I went upstairs and found that both were well. A total of three bullets had entered our house. The first bullet had passed through our bedroom wall, then had passed through two other walls and had hit a wood shelf. A second had passed through the upstairs bathroom shower tiles and had stayed in the opposite wall. The third bullet had come through our son’s bedroom wall. The bullet had not been altered by passing through the wall, and the only thing between the bullet and our son was the sideboard of his bed, which showed no mark from the bullet. The bullet simply had stopped and fallen harmlessly to the floor.

This example of God’s protection reminded me of a number of accounts in the Bible of men and women who, as a result of their wholehearted devotion to divine Spirit, experienced protection from harm. For example, Daniel faithfully prayed to God three times a day and refused to bow to any suggestion of a lesser god. This absolute faith in the ever-present God, Love, checked the laws of nature, for he was able to spend a night in a den of lions without being harmed (see Dan. 6:1–23). Likewise, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace because they also refused to bow to a material god. The laws of matter were nullified by the omnipotence of God—the only God there is. The three men were completely untouched by the fire. Their prayer and dedication to God saved them (see Dan. 3:1–28).

The spiritual understanding of God and man—and the safety that flows from this understanding—are available to us today. The Bible teaches that God is Spirit, Truth, and Love and that He created man in His image and likeness. The Bible also states that God created all that is good and that there is no other creator or power. Since God is Love and man is the likeness of Love, man is loving, lovable, loved; gentle, tender, and harmless. God did not make an evil man or a man who could be the target or victim of evil. Christ Jesus declared that the devil, or evil, is nothing but a lie (see John 8:44). The very name, lie, points to the powerlessness of any form or suggestion of evil or violent behavior.

This is what we saw in the incident with my family. My daily prayer and study of the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s writings had made God tangibly real to me as a very present help in my life and an all-powerful shield for my family. The physical law of a bullet traveling at great speed with no solid object to stop it was nullified in our son’s case, and we were all protected from this act of random violence. We saw the truth that God never sleeps. Divine Principle is forever operating, maintaining the harmony of its creation.

Afterward I also saw the need to forgive whoever may have been responsible for this senseless action, to free my thought of seeing man as evil. My daily prayer involves the search to understand man as spiritual (the likeness of Spirit, God) rather than material. This includes striving to put off the aspects the carnal mind myself and to put on the qualities of the real, spiritual man, as Paul teaches in the book of Romans, chapter 8.

Expanding this prayer to encompass the world, we can pray daily to destroy false evidence presenting man as evil. We can hold in thought, through spiritual sense, God’s perfect, loving idea, created in His likeness—tender, gentle, and harmless. This prayer fulfills Christ Jesus’ command to love one another.

God is working with us, so let’s be faithful in this great work to bring peace and harmony to our world. Let’s abide with God, Love, in our daily prayer, conversation, and in every action.

This article was published in the October 16, 1995 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel. To learn more about this weekly inspirational magazine, published online and in print, visit HERE.