One test of the progress we have made in our understanding of God's omnipresence through the study of Christian Science comes at the moment when our children are ready to leave the shelter of the family home, either literally or in the sense that it is time for them to make their own decisions.
Throughout the years when our young people have been in our care, we have done our best to prepare and equip them for this adventure. If we are students of Christian Science, we already know that the best possible equipment we can offer them is reliance on God's allness and omnipresence.
What of the parents? Do we take equal care to prepare ourselves to loose the young explorers and let them go with a joyous confidence based on our own proved trust in God's omnipresence? Sometimes this moment in family life may seem a hard one for the parents. The temptation may present itself to be fearful that their children will be lured from the safe path into byways that are undesirable and dangerous. Or the subtle suggestion may whisper that certain weaknesses of character, still needing correction, may lead to trouble when there is no watchful parent standing by.
We accept without question that a correct solution is possible when mathematical rules are applied correctly to either a simple or a complicated problem, even when we do not ourselves know the rules sufficiently well to demonstrate them. We can accept with equal confidence the law of Love, which decrees that Spirit is the only attraction, ever operative. We can also accept with complete trust that because God is All, there is no place or circumstance beyond God's control. That we do not always prove this fact immediately in our human experience does not change the fact.
An outstanding Biblical example of trust in Love's omnipresence has been invaluable to me in rearing a family, especially when I have been tempted to be overanxious or troubled about my children's well-being. This example is the story of the Shunammite woman. Nothing could have been more shocking to the devoted mother than the death of her longed-for son. And yet, when questioned about his well-being by Elisha's servant, she answered, "It is well."I Kings 4:26 This "great woman,"v. 8 as she is referred to earlier in the chapter, must have recognized how much God loved her and the child. And how wonderful it was for her to have this faith confirmed in the child's healing!
If we manifest this understanding faith, we need have no anxiety about letting our children go on their way to new experiences. Instead of dwelling fearfully on worldly temptations or weaknesses of character, we can dwell joyfully on the evidence of Christlike qualities already being expressed in their daily lives. In each thoughtful gesture, each affectionate and considerate action, each willing offer to help, we can recognize and appreciate Christlikeness.
This does not mean that we turn a blind eye on that which is not Christlike. Errors cannot, of course, be condoned or ignored, nor can we expect that our young people will sail through their human experience unconfronted by aggressive mental suggestions.
Errors have to be uncovered and corrected. This may sometimes seem to be a painful process, and parents long to shield their children from such experiences. But our study of Christian Science has taught us that progress need not be painful, not when we lean on the omnipresence of Love. The Psalmist asks, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" Ps. 139:7 To me the answer is summed up in these lines in the Christian Science Hymnal:
O perfect Life, in Thy completeness held,
None can beyond Thy omnipresence stray.Hymn No. 66
When cherishing a plant which needs support until firmly established, we tie straying tendrils gently to a firm object. Our own confidence that our children cannot stray beyond God's omnipresence provides just such a firm object, which may be expressed humanly in a willingness to listen patiently; to resist the temptation to preach or to argue too vehemently against ideas put forward by our young people without fair consideration of their point of view. No matter if we feel disappointed when they are temporarily unwilling to accept our own way of thinking, we can still let them know that we trust their ability to meet their problems with courage and integrity and that we have confidence in their moral standards.
Young people are not always prepared to accept, without first investigating other views, the way of life recommended by their parents unless they have thoroughly proved that this is the way of life which really means something. We respect them for this and are not disturbed if they rebel, for instance, against any suggestion that a good life is exclusive to the Christian Science way of thinking. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, covers this point with her usual all-embracing love when she writes, "Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love—be it song, sermon, or Science—blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty."Science and Health, p. 234
To suggest that our young people will be safer and less open to temptation if they confine their social contacts to those reared in Christian Science homes and Sunday Schools would be an admission on our part that Love is not ever present and all-embracing embracing. It is also a denial of Jesus' command to go out into all the world and preach the gospel. Our children have been taught that one of the most convincing ways to preach the gospel is to live what they know of God; so we must be ready to encourage them to do just this in whatever sphere their work and interests may take them.
When mistakes are made, there is another temptation that assails the parent—that of self-condemnation. "Where did we go wrong?" is a cry from the heart, which will find comfort in the father's reply to his elder son in the parable of the prodigal son, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Luke 15: 31 All the fathering and mothering qualities are ours by reflection, so close and available that, like the elder son, we have not always appreciated what we have.
If our heart-searchings uncover possessive human pride, which has been mortified, humiliated, or disappointed, or if any hint of that which is not in line with Principle is uncovered, we can rejoice at the uncovering and know that "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son." Ezek. 18:20 All concerned may go forward with a clearer vision of man's relationship to God and of His infinite love for His own dear family.
Out of the depths of her own experience Mrs. Eddy writes, "The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares." Science and Health, p. 574 The angels of God's presence are ever with us and our children. So, in times of difficulty, let us look for the angels instead of dwelling sadly on the afflictions.
Our Leader's yearning love for the young is tenderly expressed in these words from her poem "To the Sunday School Children":
Father, in Thy great heart hold them
Ever thus as Thine!
Shield and guide and guard them; and, when
At some siren shrine
They would lay their pure hearts' oft" ring,
Light with wisdom's ray—
Beacon beams—athwart the weakly,
Rough or treacherous way.Poems, p. 43
