Flying With God

My husband has held a private pilot’s license for over 30 years, and loves flying small single engine planes.  While I’ve never had a desire to learn to fly, our children & I enjoy accompanying him on trips to new places.

Before each trip, I pray- pray to know who is in charge of everything- the plane, the engine, the weather, the air traffic controllers- all is under control of the 1 Mind- God.  I love Hymn 136 “I Love Thy Way of Freedom Lord”- especially the line “I climb with joy the heights of Mind”, and often feel that flying in this way, helps my thought to rise above “time & space”, as I gain a new perspective on everything each trip we take.

We recently traveled to Ireland and toured around for a week.  We flew between different towns in Ireland, and had wonderful bird’s eye views of the beautiful landscape below.   We visited with family & friends, and I was struck by how my husband (not a Christian Scientist) , when asked if I flew the plane as well, would reply “no- but she reads the maps well & prays for us all.”

Little did I realise how much I would put prayer to use on this trip!!

We started our trip back to England.  The winds were about 30 knots, which you can feel in a small plane.  My husband though had experience in these types of wind, and wasn’t concerned.  Looking at my husband’s calmness whenever we hit a bump, I started to pray to know that the children & I couldn’t be affected by the wind either.  We were able to fly up to a higher altitude and the wind was calmer.

As we came over Wales, my husband began to adjust various knobs, more than normal.  He looked concerned, and the plane started to run rough.  On one of the display screens, he had a list of the closest airports to us, in case of an emergency.  Two alarms went off.  I asked him what was happening, and he said that part of the engine was running hotter than it should be and not cooling down.  It had been hot enough to trigger an alarm.  He was able to cool it by turning off that part of the engine, but this wasn’t an option for the remaining 100 miles or so we had to go.

I was scared.  In all our years of travel I hadn’t remembered anything like this- let alone up here at 15,000 feet!  Recent news reports had been filled with reports of a small plane crash a week earlier.  Almost as quickly as the fear crept in though, the “God thoughts” replaced it.

First off I started with gratitude. I was grateful that the children were not able to hear our conversation.  My husband and I could talk about what was happening & what to do without creating a sense of fear in them- even if we needed to make an emergency landing.  I was grateful for my husband’s alertness that had noticed the problem, and his calmness in trying different approaches.

Then, I started to say the Scientific Statement of Being.  God is All.  That thought kept coming to me over and over.

 If God is all, then who is in charge of the engine? God!

 If God is all, who is guiding my husband in what is the right next step? God!

 If God is all, where are we right now, right here?  In God’s kingdom- the kingdom of heaven.  Who are we?  God’s spiritual idea, living in the kingdom of heaven, untouched by any material condition- be it wind, rain, engines, or any other material thing that might try to claim it has a power over us.  Instead, we are moving and exist only in the circle of Love.

I felt at peace.  It didn’t matter how much the engine roared or stuttered, the wind blew, it just couldn’t touch me, or any of us in that plane.  I sang hymns to myself “It matters not” and Shepherd, show me how to go” as we continued along.

We were able to drop down to a lower level, and within minutes the whole problem disappeared.  Boy was I grateful!  Each of us was protected & the children had no idea that anything had occurred.

The problem is being investigated, to avoid it happening again, and I know that we are never out of God’s love, even if we are thousands of feet up in the air!