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We are safe

A Christian Science perspective: There’s nowhere we can be where we can’t turn to God, good, the divine Love that always surrounds us.

  • By Susan Tish

On a recent morning, following one of the terrorist attacks in Europe, I was in a landmark building in Boston. Since the attacks took place in social spaces, such as in an arena and on a bridge, I found myself nudged by fear that I couldn’t really feel safe in public places.

At that moment I thought about the words of a hymn I’d heard at church that Sunday called “This Is My Father’s World.” The words, written by Maltbie Babcock, rang out in the soloist’s strong, clear voice and assured listeners that God is supreme. One of the verses begins:

This is my Father’s world.
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.

The message was so simple, but it reminded me of what I accept as a spiritual fact: that the entire universe and all of us are created by God. Though it may look otherwise from a solely material view of things, our true identity is not vulnerable. Rather, as creations of divine Spirit, we are each governed according to God’s laws – the laws of divine Principle, which is Love.

With these thoughts, I felt at peace and took a moment for further prayer to embrace the world in this healing and comforting perspective. This sense of peace and safety has stayed with me as I’ve visited other areas that are open to the public, too.

The Bible offers the assurance that there is no place we can be where God, good, is not already with us or where we cannot turn to God and feel Love’s presence. For example, the Scriptures record God saying to Jacob, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go” (Genesis 28:15, New International Version). Another visionary spiritual thinker, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, explained the impact this ever-presence of God can have. She wrote: “Spirit blesses man, but man cannot tell ‘whence it cometh.’ By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling in eternal Science” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 78).

God is the “invisible good” that always surrounds us. This all-powerful good doesn’t just comfort the sorrowing; it can help make the world a safer place. Through prayer we can come to see how God can even reach and reform individuals who may be feeling disenfranchised and tempted to harm their neighbors. Our divine Father-Mother speaks to each of us every moment, assuring us that divine Love is caring for us. No one is outside the realm of God’s loving government.

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