Remember the Snowplow!
NO, I'm not talking about the kind of snowplow that clears the streets of snow. I'm talking about the kind you do when you're skiing downhill!
The snowplow is the first skiing position you learn when you learn how to ski. The tips of the skis point toward each other, and the skis angle out behind you in a big V shape. Moving across the snow in this position pushes the snow to the sides--which is why it has the name snowplow!
Once you learn it, the snowplow feels steady and safe. You can use it to keep from getting out of control or going too fast. And when the hill is really steep, you just have to hold the position more firmly. In fact, advanced skiers--skiers who know how to ski in parallel position and who do jumps and moguls and everything-- know that if they get in a spot that seems too steep or icy, they can rely on the snowplow to get down the mountain safely.
Well, this is something like learning about your relation to God! Some of the first lessons you learn are that God is Love and that you are His perfect, spiritual image and likeness. This may sound awkward or odd or funny the first time you hear it--kind of the way skis feel the first time you wear them! But when you think about these ideas it's easier to see that they're the truth revealed to us in the Bible. And we have Christ Jesus as our Master, our instructor and example, to help us understand them.
Jesus knew all about his relation to God. And he showed us that this understanding gets us out of any difficulty. He healed people of all kinds of diseases; he caused blind people to see and deaf people to hear; he fed thousands of people with just a little food; he even brought back to life people who had died--all through what he knew about man as the expression of God, divine Spirit.
Jesus also had to get himself out of difficulties, because he was persecuted for what he did and taught. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, writes about how Jesus was able to demonstrate healing power. Referring to him she says: ``The `man of sorrows' best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love'' (p. 52). I sometimes like to think of these ``two cardinal points,'' or two main points, as making up Jesus' snowplow! He knew that because man's selfhood is spiritual, the material sense of life is a big mistake and can be overcome. And because God is Love, everyone is included in this wonderful truth.
Jesus also taught that we can do the works that he did. In fact, he said that even by understanding a little bit of man's relation to God we can heal big problems. He put it this way, as Matthew's Gospel records: ``If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you'' (17:20).
When we feel as if we're on the top of a mountainous problem, we can turn our thoughts toward God and remember the snowplow--our basic understanding that God is Love and man is His perfect, spiritual image and likeness. Then we'll be guided safely down that mountain. And the harder the situation seems, the more firmly we can remember to hold that mental snowplow position and be safe.
BIBLE VERSE The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour.... In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice.
II Samuel 22:2, 3, 7
