On page 561 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy we read that "John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration.— reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God." The word "embrace" is derived from two Latin words, in and brachium (arm), and from the old French embracer, and means to take or clasp in the arms. Therefore, this passage informs us that our humanity is held in the arms of divinity. Yes, in the arms of our divinity. What an abiding place! Such a clasp spells complete safety, entire immunity from danger. Moreover, it is the result of the human and divine coincidence, and the word "coincide" means to correspond exactly, so that here is the comforting assurance that the human and divine correspond exactly in demonstration. That is to say, the eternality of the divine Life is made manifest to us in length of days. The divine intelligence is made manifest to us in wisdom, alertness, forethought, and foresight. The divine omnipotence is manifested to us in a sense of power and dominion which is in the ratio of our understanding, but which is far in advance of any ability we might have without the help of Christian Science. This is perfectly expressed at the end of the sentence already quoted, "reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God." Divine Science, then, has given us the right to say that divinity holds our humanity in its arms: so it is safe, for nothing can affect or invade divinity.
Now, whose divinity is it? Our divinity, our true being coming into manifestation. Therefore, it can truly be affirmed that our humanity is held in the arms of our divinity. Again the Christian Science textbook says. on page 43, "The divine must overcome the human at every point." We have the right to declare that this is easy and natural, because the human is weak and the divine mighty. The human is temporal and the divine eternal. The human is erring and the divine perfect. All power belongs to the divine. Only the divine is real; therefore in reality only the divine is going on. How important it is, then, to identify ourselves with and consciously claim this divinity! Continuing this thought, we see that in a time of crisis or uncertainty our divinity will direct our humanity. Sometimes it is difficult to make a decision; one is not sure which is the right decision to make. At such times the distress caused by our ignorance of what is best is lifted when we affirm that our divinity knows what to do and will discern and decide rightly. Our part is to trust it to do so.
An embrace signifies something very close and very tender, and so by this signification we are informed of the immanence of the divine and of the tenderness with which it succors our humanity. They are indeed inseparable until the human yields entirely to the divine and disappears.
