I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil
is getting thinner and thinner.
- Louis Pasteur
This is a true story.
A World War II pilot was shot down over the Pacific Ocean. He bailed out of the plane into the freezing waters in complete darkness. Prospects for rescue and survival seemed dim at best. He remembered being taught as a boy in Sunday School about God's spiritual law of adjustment - that no circumstance was beyond Divine control - no situation hopeless to Divine Love.
Despite the utter darkness, frigid waters, and isolation, the pilot kept his faith -- and prayed. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a helicopter, which became louder and louder until he realized it was hovering directly above him. A rope appeared - which he grabbed with the last ounces of his strength, his body nearly frozen, and rappelled up to safety.
Once on board, the helicopter pilot said to the rescued man, "It's a good thing you had that light or I never would have seen you way out here in the middle of nothing."
To which the rescued man replied - ''But I didn't have a light."
(This original article, God's Law of Adjustment can be found at:
http://www.christianscience.org/GodsLaw.htm)
Louis Pasteur, the great French chemist and microbiologist made significant breakthroughs in the prevention of sickness and the cure of disease including the first rabies vaccine. Pasteur was fearless. Recounted in The Story of San Michele, Axel Munthe wrote of Pasteur's research for rabies vaccine research:
Anxious to secure a sample of saliva straight from the jaws of a rabid dog, I once saw him with the glass tube held between his lips draw a few drops of the deadly saliva from the mouth of a rabid bull-dog, held on the table by two assistants, their hands protected by leather gloves.
But his greatest gift to a general public was inventing a method to stop milk and wine from causing sickness, a process that came to be called pasteurization. Pasteur was assiduous in his research methodologies and believed that "chance favors the prepared mind." He was always puzzled by the failure of his peers in the scientific community to recognize God's existence in their observations of the world around them, and especially in their successful experiments and discoveries.
"These are the living springs of great thoughts and great actions. Everything grows clear in the reflections from the Infinite."
It takes intentional mental and spiritual training and practice to "lift the veil."
The beginning of a New Year is a natural time to renew that extra effort to edge closer to understanding the miracles surrounding us that appear as mysteries. We all have that inner light that saved the downed pilot, and 24/7 access to the law of spiritual adjustment.
Happy New Year!