The power that remains when the hurricane leaves

It’s been heartbreaking to see reports and videos of Hurricane Dorian’s devastating path in the Atlantic. Such disasters lend themselves to feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and despair.

And yet, those reports also point to something else entirely. Fortitude. Selflessness. Courage. Grace. Compassion.

This is no small thing. These qualities are a sign of something more enduring than ferocious winds and impervious to overpowering floods – a power that brings out the best in us, even in the worst of times.

The divine Science of Christ reveals that this power is our creator, God, who is ever-present good, and our capacity to feel and express such qualities stems from our true nature as God’s children. Grit can only get us so far. But as offspring of the Divine, we’re so much more than mortals whose compassion and courage can be exhausted. We’re the spiritual expression of God’s limitless love, of unending divine Life, of a truly compassionate power.

There’s a lot in the world to remind us of what’s unstable. But here’s some food for thought that takes things in a different direction. “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, explains, “The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science ...” (pp. 470-471).

Not “susceptible to storms of some sort,” not “solid for as long as the levees or boards hold out,” but straight-up indestructible. Established and sustained by our divine Parent, our lives can’t be broken, our strength can’t be swept away, our peace can’t be blown about.

We can reverently pray to know that even those lost to the devastating blow of this storm are indestructible, as is the deepest sense of home of those made temporarily homeless by it. Because we are children of God, our life is in divine Spirit, not confined to a material body. Knowing this can temper and even help heal grief.

And spiritually understood, our home is a spiritual awareness of God, in whom we “live, and move, and have our being,” according to the Bible (Acts 17:28). We become conscious of this abode in divine Spirit as we pray to understand our spiritual nature. Many people have reported in magazines on Christian Science published by the Monitor’s publisher how perceiving this spiritual reality has helped them find solutions to the tragic loss of a home.

Each and every receptive heart can feel this assurance of the Christ, God’s tender, empowering message of love. God’s goodness and care remain intact, even when so much in the world around us does not. Nothing is more powerful than God, infinite Love, divine Truth.

Even the smallest glimpse of this spiritual reality shows us that we are not doomed to interminable chaos, that there is a solid basis for hope and progress. It brings to light more of the divine goodness and safety that are ever present. And it brings out in us the peace, strength, and selflessness that are our birthright as God’s children, helping us realize that we have all we need to deal with the issues at hand.

And that’s something that can never be taken from us.