02/17/2026
Protection Provided - an article by Leon Albo Woods
We all have the surest protection available, right where we are every minute. This all-encompassing refuge is in our knowing our real selfhood as children of God.
It would appear, however, that mankind are perpetually seeking protection through various devices outside themselves. Some of these devices are atomic and nuclear weapons and other arms for the defense of nations. Watchdogs, alarm systems, guns, and other means are resorted to in the effort to protect individuals. But these are variable and unsure means of safety.
Why, one may ask, are not men equipped to defend themselves as much, at least, as the falcon or gazelle with its speed, the elephant with its tremendous strength, other animals with their natural camouflage? Even the lowly fruit fly has an elusiveness he can use to avoid detection. Is such equipment provided for the animals, birds, and insects but not for mankind? No! Men have their armor too. They are not left exposed. They are protected by their knowing—knowing what to do, and when and how to do it. Right doing follows right thinking, and right thinking is governed by right, spiritual ideas coming from God, Spirit. Spiritual ideas, then, are necessarily reflected through spiritual, not human, means.
Christian Science teaches that the real man is spiritual, and it draws a distinction between man and mankind. Therefore man, being spiritual, is a right expression of all right ideas. The scientific explanation and description of spiritual man is in accord with Bible teachings and proofs. The real man as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis is spiritual. Mrs. Eddy defines this real man, in part, as "the compound idea of God, including all right ideas."1 This truth of man was also emphatically preached and clearly demonstrated in the life and works of Christ Jesus, who knew himself as God's Son, the true representative of God.
The real man is not to be mistaken for Adam, or mortal man, as described in the second chapter of Genesis. Mortal man is an unreal concept, perpetuated through other mortal concepts—the belief that man has a mind of his own, for instance. The real man expresses God's being. God's image and likeness cannot be unlike God.
That Life is God and not at the mercy of physical functions Christian Science makes abundantly clear, and this truth points to mankind's means of protection. Writes Mrs. Eddy, "Life demonstrates Life." And she continues in the same paragraph, "If God, who is Life, were parted for a moment from His reflection, man, during that moment there would be no divinity reflected. The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be childless,—no Father."2 Spiritual man, the only true man, is ever protected by the spiritual fact of his inseparability from God, good. Whether we realize this fully, partly, or not at all does not affect the absolute fact. But just to the extent that we recognize it do we see this protection manifested in our everyday experiences. There is no place of danger for spiritual man. Contrariwise, mankind would seem to make a dangerous place and then put themselves in it; they would make a reality of disease and then appear to suffer from it.
Protection in proper perspective always has one right where he should be. This is always evident if he is leaning on heavenly law as a primordial force, preceding, not subsequent to, belief in any other law. How much protection one has in the human realm is in proportion to how cognizant he is of the laws of God. If he truly realizes he is first under divine law, he is safe wherever he finds himself. The all-intelligent, infinite divine Mind presents thoughts that are right to man, and thus man has established, unlimited safety.
To reach this true sense of protection, we are required to be watchful of every thought that we let into consciousness. We must allow good, not evil, to enter our thinking—the attractive qualities of love, truth, honesty, forbearance, kindness, integrity, affection. Such qualities, expressed, give us power for good and protect us from all foes—sin, sickness, disease, death. Taking on such attributes, we afford ourselves complete coverage, for we are acting under the policy of God's plan, which is all-inclusive, and the premium cost is our joy in being aware of this great fact, our finding and proving ourselves in our spiritual selfhood.
The absolute truth is that no evil or harm of any kind ever touches the real man, for his consciousness reflects God. Divine consciousness fills all space, and is impregnable. It cannot be invaded by anything foreign to good. Accounts in the Bible of Joseph (see Ge., Chaps. 37, 39—41) and others give proof of God's protective power. Present-day evidence of God's protection of men is also abundant. Many verified accounts can be found in the testimonies and articles appearing in the Christian Science periodicals.
In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902, Mrs. Eddy gives an account from her own experience of protection provided under God's law. She writes: "In the eighties, anonymous letters mailed to me contained threats to blow up the hall where I preached; yet I never lost my faith in God, and neither informed the police of these letters nor sought the protection of the laws of my country. I leaned on God, and was safe."3 This was only one of many proofs Mrs. Eddy had of God's supporting law.
Realizing our true source as God, our natural protection as the unlimited flow of ideas from God, we are protected from harm, even in our concepts of physicality or physical body. The Psalmist says, "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me."4 Time and again in the Bible we are assured of mankind's protection. The Psalmist says again, in the beautiful language of the ninetyfirst Psalm, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."5
We cannot be outside God's protection at any time. The right ideas that protect us cannot be lost, for they are included in God, divine Mind, and man is God's reflection. These ideas are the substance of our spiritual identity. Why, then, should the inhabitants of the world today accept anything other than God, good, as providing for their safety, when good is always at hand and the only true protection?
If all past fears and those aligned with the future were to be discarded at this very moment, and the idea of God-assured protection accepted, right now we would recognize so much peace and joy that life as we wish it to be, and as it really is, would unfold to a greater degree than perhaps we have ever even dreamed.
God preserves all His creatures, including man, who is His reflection. Man is eternally intact because he is God's likeness and nothing but good can enter his consciousness. As we realize these truths, hope, neighborliness, kind deeds, foresight, gratitude, happiness, and just plain recognizing good as good, and doing good, become active in us. When we use our provided protection—the true awareness of man's spiritual nature—there will be war no more, and peace will come on earth as it is already in heaven. There is no comparison between God's protection—annulling the very possibility of evil's existence—and mankind's inadequate thought of protection. The one is real and the other unreal. In the understanding and practice of Christian Science we have the ultimate in protection available to us now!
We all have the surest protection available, right where we are every minute. This all-encompassing refuge is in our knowing our real selfhood as children of God. It would appear, however, that mankind are perpetually seeking protection through various devices outside themselves. Some of these devic...
