It can feel as though headlines are escalating each day with increasingly frightening and hopeless news. We would not be alone in asking, “Will we be OK? Should we retreat? Wait it out?”
Viewed from the perspective of Christian Science, we note the biblical assurances that the peace and love of God are with us, and also that God is “the faithful God … to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9). “A thousand generations” indicates God’s permanent, not sometimes or occasional, faithfulness. And we can be awake to His promise to us – His beloved, spiritual creation – that His peace and love are with us always.
This faithfulness is a manifestation of the eternal unity of God with His beloved expression, man, including every individual. An exploration of this promise is an overarching theme that inspired me as I studied this week’s “Christian Science Quarterly” Bible Lesson on the subject of “Love.”
The Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, assures us that because “Love is enthroned” (p. 454), no matter how difficult the situation is that we are facing, we can stand fast in knowing that divine Love is the only authority and the only influence – that, in truth, Love is completely in control and leading the way.
This is not some kind of Pollyanna take on difficult events. It is a sincere commitment to dive below the frothing, crashing waves, into the deep calm and restoring presence of Love. Jesus illustrated this approach when he raised his friend Lazarus from the dead four days after he had passed on, an account that’s part of the Bible Lesson.
The situation seemed hopeless. Nevertheless, Jesus turned to God with steadfast confidence, and proved with authority and permanence that “divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object” (Science and Health, p. 304).
But is this promise true today? Can we still experience divine Love’s immediate care?
Yes. Let me share a recent example. On Sunday mornings I would almost always see a certain homeless person on the street, sitting on a milk crate, wearing a US Marine Corps veteran cap, and staring into the distance. He would sit there only on Sundays, for a couple of hours, no matter what the weather was – hot, cold, sleet, snow, rain. Over the years we’d chat a little in passing, usually about the weather, but he had also told me that he had served in combat and suffered with “survivor’s guilt.”
One day this spring I felt led by God to share a printout that included a few sentences that are also in this week’s Bible Lesson: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good” (Science and Health, p. 494).
This assurance that, no matter the situation, we can accept that we are loved of God and feel His care, has been very helpful to me and was very helpful to him. When I saw him the following week, he smilingly told me he was reading the printout every day. And the next time I saw him, he had some good news to share with me. He said that a lady had come by and asked him if he really was a veteran, to which he said yes and gave her his service papers. She found housing for him, and he moved into his own apartment almost immediately.
I wish you could have seen how his eyes sparkled as he shook his head in disbelief, and how he grinned as he shared more of the details about his new home, which is close to grocery shopping and his church. I haven’t seen him on the street since that day.
As we recognize God’s love and care for us, we see Love manifest itself in the most perfect of ways. This brings to mind a hymn whose words are from a poem titled “Thy birthright.” The hymn opens:
Forget not who you are, O child of God,
For God demands of you reflection pure;
Your heritage is goodly, and your home,
In Spirit’s warm embrace, is safe, secure.
And it closes:
Of royal birth, you are a King’s own child –
And God is yours, and you are God’s alway.
(Mildred Spring Case, “Christian Science Hymnal: Hymns 430-603,” No. 475, alt. © CSBD)
That’s good news that we can always turn to: God loves us “to a thousand generations.”
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