"Security for the claims of harmonious existence is found only in divine Science. "
- Mary Baker Eddy
Our 17 year old daughter was somewhere in a plane high above the Atlantic ocean when it occurred to me that she would be landing in Sau Paulo airport early the next morning and would have a 10 hour layover in a city that I knew nothing about. I was volunteering at a camp for teens in the Rocky Mountains. My job was to help counselors and campers find spiritual strength, healing, guidance and peace, through prayer, each day as they headed out for activities that ranged from backpacking in mountains that towered 14,000 feet above sea level, to whitewater rafting on one of the most demanding rivers in the southwest.
Even though my days were filled with inspiration and I felt deep-settled calm about each of our campers, and their concerns for personal safety and freedom from harm, I sat bolt upright in bed at 2 AM that morning when I realized that I could actually google "Sao Paulo airport" on my laptop and see what Hannah's options for boredom-alleviating activities and finding a secure place to rest were, until her connecting flight to Johannesburg South Africa boarded later that day.
I hoped that she would call when she landed so that I could share my research with her and suggest some places that she might want to take a taxi from the airport to, and explore during the day.
As I powered up my laptop and waited for the dial up modem to find a local connection in the rather remote area where camp rests at the base of a range of mountains in the Arkansas Valley, I was somewhat pleased with myself for thinking of this little project and how wonderful it was that I could be so informed about a place I had never even considered, until Hannah's flight was rerouted the day before from her scheduled connection thorugh Dubai, Dubai to Sao Paulo, Brazil.
I typed in "Sao Paulo airport" and the first hit took my breath away. It was a news item from a major US city's daily newspaper that told of riots in the streets of Sao Paulo and the burning of buses and attacks on tourists. I was paralyzed with fear. I spent the next hour, not praying, but googling everything I could to find as much information about the situation as I could. I then called the airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration's hotline, and a terrorism watchdog organization that I found online that told me that "yes, there is grave concern about airport security in Sao Paulo....in fact, travel through Sao Paulo was discouraged for the next few days until the unrest had been settled", another source reported.
Still I hadn't prayed. Oh, I had pleaded with God to protect my little (five foot, eight inch) girl...but pray....take a mental stand based on spiritual laws that govern the universe and find my peace....not yet. I still had another couple of hours of self-doubt and compassion-building "on my knees" parental agony to go through before I would be ready for that I guess.
I continued to vacillate between "God is All" and "I need to be informed so that I can do something to fix this" thinking...yes, I know, I certainly had high regard for my global handyman (or woman) abilities....but I was desperate! Moms fix things...don't they?
I emailed acquaintances (and even people I didn't know) in Sao Paulo begging them to go to the airport and sit with my daughter until her connecting flight took off. I googled a map of the airport terminal and tried to plot out what would be the safest place for her to stay for ten hours out of harms way. When I was exhausted and had exhausted every possible strategy for securing her well-being, I sat back in my chair and took a deep breath. There on the screen of my computer was the portal to even more details (over 12, 000 hits listed) about Sao Paulo than I could have dreamed were possible to obtain, and yet it had not given me one bit of information about my daughter's security. I was still concerned, feeling unsettled, and my heart ached in a way I hadn't felt since she started kindergarten and I sat outside the door all morning waiting for her little blonde head appeared at lunchtime beaming with delight at her new adventures.
That was when I remembered who I was, why I was at camp, what I knew to be true about children's safety....whether on a raging river, a treacherous mountain peak, or in a rioting foreign city. I turned to two sources of information I had forgotten for a few hours, even though they had always brought me peace of mind....the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. I had been using the ideas in these two books to help campers and counselors find freedom from fear for four weeks that summer and I knew in an instant that there would be an answer of peace for me there too. I was not alone in the middle of the night, high in the mountains. far from help, and more importantly, neither was Hannah. I was up because I loved children...not just at camp or because they were "mine", but because it was my nature. And I was awake because this was the kid-related issue I needed to be praying about right at that moment. I wasn't praying because "my daughter" was in Sao Paulo, my daughter was in Sao Paulo because that was where my prayers for the safety and security of children was most needed at that moment. Hannah and I were part of a larger picture and we were both in God's care. We were both secure in His omnipotent government of good, safe in his ever-aware omnipresent loving of us, and of all. Every weary traveler, every frustrated heart lashing out in anger, every law enforcement official, every parent around the world was being held by His strong hand, nestled in Her loving arms and guided rightly by His clear, firm messages of direction, discipline, affection, and grace.
As I prayed with these thoughts such a deep and settled peace descended on my heart that I must have drifted off to sleep. I was awakened before dawn to the phone ringing. It was my daughter. She was just calling to say that she was in Sao Paulo airport, that it was boring and the food was way too expensive. We talked for a few more minutes...me telling her I love her and to call when she arrived in Johannesburg (which she did later that night), her telling me she would. Then we hung up before the cost of the call was more than the food at the airport. After I replaced the handset on the phone's base, I noticed that my computer was still open and the screen was still showing the last page I had googled.
I chuckled to myself as I exited out of the search engine realizing that I had not shared any of the details of my middle of the night research, or my concern, with my daughter. We both had all the information that we needed and it was coming directly from the one true source of the security itself...God. I quickly sent follow-up emails to the folks I had asked to go to the airport and sit with Hannah in Sao Paulo. I assured them that I had heard from her and that she was fine, thanking them for being patient with my anxious missives in the middle of the night. I turned off my computer and tucked myself back into bed for the 20 or so minutes of rest that I could enjoy before I needed to be up for the camp staff inspirational gathering at daybreak. I was at peace. This would be a good day, we were all safe in His love....on mountaintop, in rivers, and in airports, schools, offices, homes, neighborhoods, and warzones....we would all be safe today.
K
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