Love is the power

During a discussion with a man I just met last weekend I brought up my favorite topic, Christian Science.  One of his first questions was, “What is the distinction between Christian Science and Scientology, given that they both promote healing by means other than medicine?”

I thanked him for recognizing that Christian Science is not Scientology.  I said that I do not know much about Scientology except that it is not Bible-based.  Then I told him that Christian Science is based on the teachings and example of Christ Jesus and the prophets as found in the Bible.  It is Science, the study of which takes the learner toward a deep understanding of God and God’s relationship with each individual.  As the Bible in I John reveals, “God is love.”  Using that definition of God, He feels much closer and more powerful and the relationship feels like something more present to me than an abstraction.

Although our discussion was short, my thoughts continued.  I thought, “What if love were all there is?”

In fact, that conclusion is exactly what I find to be true as I study Christian Science.  That God is All and that God is Love is revealed in the Bible and can be stated intellectually.  What brings it home for me is demonstrating the presence of divine Love in healing. 

Let me give an example.  My daughter Jen, who had recently graduated from the university, worked and saved to fund a dream trip to trek through Patagonia, an area at the southern tip of South America filled with pristine beauty of glaciers, mountains, fiords and trails to allow them to be seen.  After several weeks alone on the trails, she stopped at a mountain hostel for a little friendship and a shower.  In a phone call home she mentioned that a heavy rash had appeared all over her body.  She wanted to stay on schedule by leaving the next morning, but it would be impractical to carry the backpack with a rash.  We both knew that the power of divine Love does not allow an ungodly condition to stop the progress of joy and our conversation brought that truth to consciousness.  Love enables rather than disables.  Although I did not hear again from her for over a week, I later learned that she had left on schedule with no remaining trouble from a rash. 

I have experienced and witnessed too many such healings to believe that this healing was just a coincidence or just biologically natural.  For me and for Jen, it is confirmation of the presence of divine Love reaching the human experience wherever we are.

And, the recognition of divine Love as the one healing and saving power is what distinguishes Christian Science from other methods of healing.  As the Bible declares in Romans 13, verse 1, “there is no power but of God.”  I love knowing that this point can be experienced by in daily life.