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Love is 'dawning over every nation'

A Christian Science perspective: Divine Love is greater than hate, fear, and division.

  • By Robert R. MacKusick

Today’s news media bring to us immediate reports of trouble spots around the world. I’ve found comfort in this phrase in a hymn in the “Christian Science Hymnal”: “Love now is dawning over every nation;/ Showing true brotherhood, publishing salvation” (Margaret Morrison, No. 179). This message applies to areas of the world fraught with strife and conflict – Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, and many others.

The Master, Christ Jesus, didn’t travel far from his home in Nazareth, but his influence has been widespread since the moment he began teaching in his local Aramaic language. What he taught of God’s perfection, goodness, and love has reached every corner of the world. His love for the world was not for the comfort and material riches of the world, but it was a deep compassion for humanity’s salvation, unity, and peace.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20, 21).

Divine Love is universal, reaching to every corner of the world. That Love embraces every single one of its children. That divine Love is at every conference table, tribal campfire gathering, and conference call designed to bring disparate opinions together for the greater good.

A key element in feeling and experiencing divine Love’s infinite blessing is to sacrifice self – self-interest, self-will, and self-promotion. This yielding of self, whether we are actually on the site of the conflict area in question or thousands of miles away, can open the way for divine Love’s infinite embrace to bring peace and salvation to the world.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, wrote, “Individuals, as nations, unite harmoniously on the basis of justice, and this is accomplished when self is lost in Love – or God’s own plan of salvation” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 283).

The Christian Science Monitor brings special insights and perspectives that help readers focus their prayers so they can be most effective and beneficial to our world. We don’t need to be discouraged if reports of turmoil and strife in the world keep coming. We can have confidence and trust in harmony, justice, and in the power of divine Love “dawning over every nation;/ Showing true brotherhood, publishing salvation.”

Divine Love is greater than hate, fear, division. Infinite Love is just that – infinite and ever present. God is all He is, in every place.

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Dear Reader,

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