A consciousness of Love heals suffering

The title of this article is one of my favorite healing ideas. The Bible teaches that “God is love” (I John 4:16) and, consequently, Christian Science uses the proper noun “Love” as another name for God.

Experience proves that knowing God as Love – the eternal comforting presence – fills our thought with harmony and peace. It is both a heavenly perspective that keeps our thinking in a good place and a state of mind that is receptive to messages of truth and love bringing comfort from God. It’s a consciousness of God’s infinite goodness that knows no fear and floods thought with spiritual light and celestial joy. And, again, this consciousness of spiritual reality heals pain and suffering.

It’s not always easy to stay conscious of infinite Love. Events may occur that catch us by surprise, anger us, or make us afraid. Reasons that appear to justify anger and emotional upheaval swarm in at times. But we are not helpless.

Because Love, God, is infinite and ever present, we actually live in a universe of Love, where the power of God is always sustaining the good in our lives. Through our God-given ability to stay conscious of Love’s omnipotence and omnipresence, we can face adversity fearlessly and conquer any harm that it threatens. We can prove that anger, resentment, and fear are not compulsory.

A few months ago, I headed outside through a seldom-used door. Unknown to me, wasps had built a nest in the upper corner of the door frame. As I walked through the door, the wasps apparently felt threatened and attacked me – en masse! Being stung on all exposed parts of my body, I bolted into the yard, trying to escape the swarm of angry insects.

Hurting, I also felt a surge of anger. But no sooner did I sense a rising tide of fury within me than I realized that I had a choice to make that would determine how fast I recovered from the stings.

I could allow myself to get mad, or I could choose to forgive the wasps and pray for God, the Mind that is Love, to fill my thinking and bring me peace in mind and body. A consciousness of Love heals suffering, I recalled.

Christ Jesus taught us to love instead of hate. I didn’t need to love what the wasps had done, but I needed to love for the sake of expressing Love, which is a healing balm.

As I prayed to take the higher ground of loving rather than resenting, I found peace in knowing that the stinging sensations in my body were but temporal fears of the human mind that could be dissolved by a consciousness of Love. The choice of whether to hate or love was easy to make, and I chose to love.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “‘God is Love.’ More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go” (p. 6). When we know Love, we know the good God is and bestows. Divine Love is infinite; it fills all space and permeates true existence with comfort and peace.

Our individuality as children of God is purely spiritual. It exists completely outside of physicality. It is never hurt or in peril. It is never stung by wasps!

As I prayed to accept God’s infinite love for me and the fact that I am forever included in that Love, I saw that I had never been touched by a suggestion that something exists outside of Love and Love’s government – that I was the beloved child of God living in the omnipresence of Love.

As my thoughts rose to the heights of heavenly Love, I forgot about wasps and stings. I took in beautiful mental views of Love’s tender care for me and of my safety in Love’s embrace. The pain from the stings vanished in minutes, and the welts were quickly gone.

Mrs. Eddy observes, “To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death” (Science and Health, p. 567). There is immense healing power in a consciousness of infinite Love, for in this consciousness, evil loses all hold on thought. Fears of sin, disease, and death fade away. Any pain or sense of victimization vanishes. We find heavenly harmony and spiritual peace.

A consciousness of God as infinite Love heals suffering because in this consciousness there isn’t anything to suffer. All is Love.

Adapted from an article published in the April 28, 2025, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.