What can we do about the weather?

The weather sometimes seems to be such a nuisance, and sometimes serious threat. Doesn't it seem that we're at the mercy of the elements and nothing can be done about it?

We don't have to accept this. The Bible tells us that God is Love, that He is the only creator, and that He made His creation wholly spiritual and very good. Not just man, but the whole universe. His seasons, full of blessedness and beauty, couldn't be harmful. We have a right and the ability to do something about elements contrary to the divine nature, and where we can begin is prayer.

We must put the whole weight of our thought on the side of the power of God, good, who is actually the only power. The prophet Elijah proved this when, at a time of extreme mental distress, along came a hurricane, an earthquake, and a fire. Elijah knew that divine power was not in any of them, and this opened the way for him to hear the "still small voice" of God and its needed message (see I Kings 19:11, 12).

In a contemporary example, on one occasion two friends were due to fly from an island in the Mediterranean and make a connection on the European mainland to return to the United States. The weather was so stormy that the plane couldn't leave the mainland for the island to pick them up. It was said that autumn storms of this type would last at least three days, and this one had started that morning.

One of the friends had an important meeting to attend in the States. She refused to submit mentally to this threatening condition and clung to the fact that she and her friend were forever in the universe of God's creating, where all exists to bless. She remembered a remark Mary Baker Eddy made to a friend when discussing the weather: "We should know that God governs the weather and no other influence can be brought to bear on it" (Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving C. Tomlinson, p. 203). As one of the friends looked up through the glass roof of the airport at the heavy black clouds, she thought, "I can see right through you to the reality of God's blessing and total control. He is still smiling upon us."

About twenty minutes later a piece of blue sky appeared, and in an hour all was clear and beautiful again. Because the airline officials could hardly believe the change, the plane was delayed a bit further. So the friends enjoyed a few extra hours of sightseeing and rest, and they eventually reached New York in time for the meeting.

Science and Health states, "The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness—yea, the divine nature—appear in man and the universe never to disappear" (p. 509). It is helpful to ponder this passage and see how it can reverse seasonal problems before they take some unpleasant or dangerous form in one's experience. The constructive realization of "beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness" appearing to us inevitably results in the disappearance of their opposites.

Sometimes it helps to translate what seems to be happening outwardly into spiritual terms. For instance, the winter of Mind's creation can be seen as a quiet time when ideas are developing unseen, much as seeds grow in the deep, dark earth. The snow might symbolize a mantle of protection that Spirit has thrown over the development of these ideas. Spring typifies a beautiful period when, under the warmth of unchanging Love, ideas begin to unfold and show themselves in ways that are approved and accepted. Summer is full bloom where no budding thoughts are blighted but all come to rich fruition. Autumn, of course, is the harvest where we gather and reap the blessing of seed sown in the soil of right expectancy and trust in God's care and fulfillment. These are illustrations of the "seasons of Mind's creation."

Our perfect, God-created atmosphere isn't characterized by extremes. How often I have prayed when dear ones are driving through a blizzard, and a verse from the Bible comes to bring peace. It came once: "And an highway shall be there ... and it shall be called The way of holiness" (Isa. 35:8). Surely a way of holy thought includes nothing dangerous or detrimental to God's beloved children. I felt certain they were all in His care, and they arrived at their destination safely.

Christ Jesus taught us by his example to demonstrate our dominion over weather conditions. When he was out in a boat, his quiet trust in the power and presence of God, good, gave him such peace that he could sleep at a time when his disciples were terrified by a storm. When they woke him, his established faith in the authority of divine law enabled him to rebuke the wind and waves "and there was a great calm" (Matt. 8:26).

Indeed, there needs to be "a great calm" in our thought when there's an expectation of blizzard or fierce rainstorm, hurricane or drought. We can feel firm in the conviction that God who is Love controls His creation everywhere and always, and only blessedness can truly be present. Listening faithfully and fearlessly, we will find whatever spiritual intuition is needed quietly unfolding to reveal God's presence, which is peaceful and safe.