On a beautiful summer day in 1979, my wife and I took our young family to a favorite spot on the Santiam River in Oregon for an afternoon of swimming and playing in the water. When we arrived, we were surprised to find the river was flowing very rapidly. In fact, there were newly posted County Park Service signs warning that the river had developed an unusually strong water flow due to a large snowmelt. The signs warned people to use only a specially roped-off swimming area near the riverbank. The area was designed to keep swimmers away from the dangerous river currents, as they led to a large waterfall not far downriver. After some discussion, my wife and I felt our family would be safe as long as we stayed within the designated area and kept our children between us at all times while in the water.

We had a wonderful time for about an hour. Then, with our daughter resting safely on the riverbank, my wife and I continued playing with our four-year-old son. He was standing between us in knee-deep water, as he had not yet learned to swim. At one point, my wife and I inadvertently looked away from our son. Neither of us realized that the other was not watching him. Without warning, he accidentally slipped underwater without a sound. In a matter of seconds, he was pulled by an unseen current under the rope and out toward the center of the fast-moving river.

By the time I realized what had happened, my son was already out of my reach, floating face up just a few inches underwater and rapidly being pulled downriver. I could see his eyes wide open with fear, and bubbles coming from his nostrils. The situation was terrifying. I immediately dove under the ropes to try and save him while my wife stayed with our daughter. Despite swimming as fast as I could, I was unable to catch up to him. He was being drawn inexorably toward the waterfall. Panic gripped me. As I quickly reached out to God in prayer, my first thought was the desperate yearning of a fearful father: “Please, God, save my son!”

Immediately, through the noise of the roaring river, a very calm angel message came to me as if spoken in my ear: “There is no spot where God is not!” We had often shared that statement with our children whenever they were afraid. It was our way of assuring them in language they could understand that their Father-Mother God would always take care of them. Now those very same words came to my thought, bringing me assurance that even in the midst of this rapidly moving river, God was right there with us. Despite the dire situation, I smiled a little when I realized that the very truth I had shared with my son to comfort him was now helping me not to be afraid.

Then another angel message quickly came to my thought in the form of a Bible verse from that week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (Psalms 139:7–10). The wonderful promise of God’s right hand holding each of us calmed me and brought a great sense of peace. The panic I had felt just moments before began to disappear.

Then a third angel message flooded my thought. It was the words Christ Jesus spoke to his disciple Peter when Peter became fearful while walking on water: “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matthew 14:31). This last message was just what I needed. I realized I had to completely trust God and have absolutely no doubt as to the outcome.

Those three angel messages now completely filled my thinking. An amazing sense of peace encompassed my whole being unlike anything I had ever experienced before. The circumstances surrounding me had not changed, but my thinking had: I now absolutely knew my son would be safe and that our omnipotent Father-Mother God would save us. This was not just wishful positive thinking on my part, but a deeply felt confidence based on the many times I had seen God’s healing and saving power at work in my life previously.

Then suddenly, as if an unseen hand was guiding my son from underwater, I could see him being pushed out of the main current toward the riverbank. At the same time, a man stepped out of the forest and waded into the water a short distance downriver. He looked up just in time to see my son racing toward him. Realizing he was in trouble, the man reached out and pulled my son out of the water. The next moment, I too was pushed out of the current toward that man. He reached out and grabbed my arm, then helped us both to the riverbank, carrying my son over his shoulder.

Even though my son had been underwater for several minutes, he was fine. In fact, we were both safe and unharmed. My wife and daughter, having run along the riverbank following us, now joined us, rejoicing. They had been praying, too.

The man told us, “I don’t know why I came to this spot in the river today, but thank God I did!” And thank God we all did. Shortly after this, I found a statement by Mary Baker Eddy in Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896 that perfectly explained what had happened that day: “The Psalmist saith: ‘He shall give His angels charge over thee.’ God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for to-morrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment” (pp. 306–307).

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