God's Help, Wherever We Are

                                           John Robert Howell


                                    (Written for the those new to
                                             Christian Science)



        As one outgrows the carefree, happy days of childhood and encounters the responsibilities and challenges comprising maturity, he may at times long for the love, comfort, and counsel afforded him as a child.  Since it is not possible to turn back the clock to those years of dependency, must one forgo loving support in his present day-today life?

        One of the many passages throughout the Bible that reveal God as the tender, watchful guardian of all is "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Psalm 46:1).  And Christ Jesus, who was ever conscious of God's unfailing care for His children, said:  "He that sent me is with me:  the Father hath not left me alone" (John 8:29).  God's constant love and support are still at hand for all who yearn for heavenly help.

        Many who have felt alone and afraid before problems of lack, fear, sin, or sickness have found solace, support, and healing through the study of Christian Science.  Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 332):  "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.'"

        Christian Science shows that since man is God's offspring, His image and likeness, as the Bible reveals, man is spiritual and perfect, continuously reflecting the Father's love. This spiritual identity, the true selfhood of us all, is not helpless before the mortal claims of fear, lack, sorrow, and discord.  These erroneous beliefs, which seem so real to the unenlightened thought, stem from ignorance of man's inseparable relationship to God, divine Love, and are corrected by spiritual understanding.

        Mortal suffering is an illusion of the physical senses, a lie about God's perfect creation.  It is like the bad dream a child has at night--frightening to him, yet not real to the loved one awake at his side.  And what comfort the child feels when he wakes and sees that he is not alone and there is nothing to fear.

        When, through spiritual understanding, we arouse ourselves from the mortal dream of life in matter, to the reality of the truth of spiritual being, we experience the sense of security that comes only from a knowledge of spiritual reality.

        Anyone can be free now, the moment he awakes to Truth, and can know the comfort and assurance of man's God-bestowed peace, joy, and security through realizing that man is ever with his heavenly Father.