Peace Maker

It was about 2am. I suddenly woke up to hear a man and woman screaming at each other in the alleyway behind the apartment we were renting for the weekend. They both sounded drunk. My first reaction was Why cannot they stop this racket so I can go back to sleep? I even felt like going outside and telling them this. Then it got worse. The man began to threaten to beat-up the woman. The woman pleaded with him not to hit her. The thought came to me: You want to be a healer; now is your opportunity to put Christian Science into practice.

I began to think about what Jesus would do in this situation. Mary Baker Eddy, in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, described what Jesus had done: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick." (476:32-4)

Then I thought about God, who created man loving, pure, tender, and free. Then, evil is a lie. It can never be part of man. The first commandment says “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”(Ex. 20:3) I knew that man cannot be addicted to alcohol nor would he want to worship alcohol. God created man to serve Him, so man must be obedient to God’s law.

God is always in control of every situation; He governs all. There is no power beside God. There is no other presence, no other reality. I thought about how Jesus, right in the middle of a violent storm, said “Peace, be still” and the storm ceased. I knew peace was a God given right for man. Man is satisfied, because that is how God created him. Man needs nothing from the material senses to be satisfied. Man is already complete, in God's image. There is nothing going on but God, good and His idea, and that is all that is true and ever will be true.

Within about a half hour, the couple quieted down. I heard them both get in their cars and drive away. I was grateful for the feeling of peace that embraced the neighborhood.