Amid recent headlines about war in the Middle East – and images of many people seeking safety across the region – the declaration a Christian Science practitioner made to my wife years ago has been ringing in my ears.
Jen, my wife, had called this practitioner (an individual who helps people full-time through prayer) after not hearing from me for 24 hours. She was worried because I was traveling in a war zone in central Africa, reporting for The Christian Science Monitor. Rebels in the area were infamous for violence toward civilians. Usually, we talked or texted at least once a day.
When the practitioner heard of my situation, he quickly declared with great conviction, “Jen! ‘Love never loses sight of loveliness.’” This is a line from Mary Baker Eddy’s book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 248).
As I understand it, the spiritual law that this line declares is that divine Love, or God, as omniscient and omnipresent Spirit, created and knows every one of us as a spiritual expression of Himself and governs our experience with harmony. And, as one unique expression of the “loveliness” of God’s creation – as we all are – I was always within Love’s sight. That meant I could not be lost to physical phenomena such as violence or accident. In fact, I was safely wrapped in the ever-present Principle that is Love – all-embracing, powerful divine Love.
For three long days, they kept praying. On the morning of the fourth day, I finally got cellphone service and called to give Jen a joyous report: Not only was I safe, but I was seeing evidence of God’s love in action. In fact, during this trip I’d had great confidence that I would see what God is always showing us, which is the harmonious truth of His creation, even if that was at odds with the dire perceptions and fears about the area I was aware of. I got to see remarkable on-the-ground examples of forgiveness, neighborliness, and joy – all contributing to renewal across the region. In fact, peace was starting to spread. I’m confident the prayers of the practitioner and my wife greatly helped the success of the trip.
Now, with the news of another war, I’ve been praying to feel deeply that the “loveliness” – the inherent spiritual innocence – of all those caught in the conflict is intact, and that they are protected by that same omnipresent Love I felt in Africa. The headlines might not show it, but on the ground, wherever there’s conflict, I’m confident there are similar hallmarks of divine Love in action – including spiritual intuition guiding people to safety.
To strengthen my prayers, I’ve also turned to testimonies from Christian Scientists that demonstrate the power that prayer can have during conflict to protect both civilians and those in the military. A dive into the archives of The Christian Science Journal and Christian Science Sentinel unearths remarkable proofs of God’s love, including the following.
In an interview titled “Peace of mind – even under attack” (Sentinel, Nov. 26, 2001), a woman tells of her girlhood in occupied France during World War II. Her favorite Bible account was of God providing sustaining manna daily to the children of Israel in the wilderness (see Exodus 16:11-21). She said, “My ‘manna’ was the inner confidence that God was good, caring for me and each one (whatever nationality, no matter where).”
One day, bombs began falling around her home. As they prayed, the family went into a bomb shelter. The last person to enter was propelled into the shelter and the door slammed shut behind him. He felt a bomb had fallen very nearby or onto the building. But as the family prayed together, the interview records, “We felt God’s protection and love for each of us right there.” When the all-clear came, they discovered a bomb had entered the basement of the building next-door, but that bomb, and all the bombs that had dropped nearby, hadn’t exploded.
In “An officer’s prayers in the war zone” (Sentinel, Jan. 4, 2010), a former United States Marine officer recalls a rocket attack on his battalion. He writes that in prayer he “glimpsed something of the eternal and untouched perfection of God’s creation” and “firmly rejected the false notion that God’s loved children could somehow be separated from Him.”
After the attack, he learned that one rocket had directly hit the command building he was in – but hadn’t detonated. Others did detonate, but only minimally damaged one structure. No one was injured. “There was widespread acknowledgment that our battalion had experienced divine protection.”
These examples point to the ever-operative law we can look to and lean on in praying for our brothers and sisters around the world: “Love never loses sight of loveliness.”
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