The prophet says of God's tender care, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." (Isaiah 66:13) Who of us at times hasn't longed for the kind of loving support a wise parent gives his child? Even though carefree, happy days may be far behind, we don't have to forgo love and comfort.
Many passages throughout the Bible reveal God as the tender guardian of all. And Christ Jesus, who was ever conscious of God's unfailing care for His children said, "He thaht sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone." (John 8:29) The Father's constant, mothering love is still at hand for all who yearn for heavenly help in life's challenges.
Many of us who have felt overwhelmed in the face of daily challenges have found strength and healing through the study of Christian Science. Its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. As the apostle expressed it in words which he quoted with approbation from a classic poet: 'For we are also His offspring.'" (p. 332)
Since man is God's offspring, His image, as the Bible reveals, our actual being is spiritual and perfect, continuously reflecting the Father's love. This is true of us all. We're not, then, helpless before lack, sorrow, disease. These discords, which can seem so real to us at times, stem from ignorance of man's inseparable relationship to God, divine Love. (Or forgetting these things momentarily when problems arise.) And they're corrected by spiritual understanding.
As Jesus proved repeatedly in his healing work, suffering is no part of God's perfect creation. Rather, it is a phenomenon of the physical senses, much like the bad dream a child has at night--disturbing to him, yet not real to the loved one awake at his side. And what comfort the child feels when he wakes up and sees that he is not along and there is nothing to fear.
Acknowledging man's unity with God, who knows and imparts only good, awakens us to the truth of being. It brings our consciousness into line with the harmony of spiritual perfection, and this mental change brings freedom. Even bodily ills disappear before the recognition that God, good is always present and supreme.
No mother, however loving and devoted she may be, can be present with her child at all times and under every circumstnace. But the heavenly Father-Mother God, can be and is. As children of infinite, divine Love, you and I have continuous access to its unfailing, inexhaustible, exquisitely comforting care.
