A mother and her young son were together in the kitchen making a cake. The mother was happily remembering similar times shared with her other children when they were little. She began to think about her grown daughter who was now in a distant country. She missed her. She thought about how much this little boy loved his big sister and how close they had been. In a matter of minutes her thinking had plummeted from bright contentment to a kind of maudlin musing. The hum of the electric mixer seemed to lull her along in this dreamlike attitude.
Becoming more and more pensive, she began to wonder if her daughter was safe and warm and happy. She was filled with a yearning desire to see her and talk with her and hug her. She shut off the mixer and, turning to the child, asked him, "Do you miss your sister?" Looking up in surprise, the little boy answered quickly and cheerfully, "I don't miss her. I love her."
The depth and sweetness of the response penetrated her dreamy sentiments like a laser beam. She thought of what the Bible says: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear." John 4:18. She then returned to what she had been doing with the kind of relieved and happy feeling one gets when the sun suddenly breaks through on a cloudy day. She felt sure her daughter was safe in the loving care of her Father-Mother God. Some time later a bright and newsy letter from her daughter arrived, describing happy and enriching experiences that had occurred on that very day.
What had actually arrested the destructive and downward inclination of the mother's thought? Divine Love, as reflected in the spontaneity and purity of the child's response, had lifted her out of mortal mind's anxiety into a normal and healthy level of childlike loving. She needed to love her daughter with childlike simplicity, the simplicity that hints of the Christ. "Love one another, as I have loved you," John 15:12. Christ Jesus said. To love as Jesus loved is to see another as God's own beloved child. Man in God's image is confident of his own secure relationship to God—his place within Him—and he inherently reflects God's love. It's natural for children, even little babies, to love. Jesus showed us the importance of this childlike expression when he called the little ones to him and said, "Of such is the kingdom of God." Luke 18:16.
Parents in their child-rearing careers have many opportunities to demonstrate through prayer that divine Love casts out fear in them and assures safety for their children. Christian Science shows them how. The parents' first experience of so-called separation may be in leaving baby in the care of someone else; later seeing the child go off to Sunday School or kindergarten, and then on to school. Perhaps summer camp may come along, followed by the first date and driver's license, until the child finally leaves to go out on his own into the world.
Parents can love enough to let their children go and grow, trusting God to care for and guide them. The acknowledgment that the highest love and protection are found in our Father-Mother God frees both parent and child to express their genuine individuality with confidence and poise. Children and parents can share friendly, warm, and respectful relationships with each other through the liberating realization that God is the strong and loving Parent of us all. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation." Science and Health, p. 332.
The book of Isaiah records God as saying, "Bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him." God's sons and daughters always were and always will be under His protective law. Isaiah continues, "Let all the nations be gathered together." Isa. 43:6, 7,9. Where? In Him. This is togetherness at its very loveliest! Closer than a human embrace is Love, the divine Mother, which draws its children to itself and holds them securely within its care.
In contrast to this, sometimes human mother love, reluctant to let go, holds on too tightly. But through prayer, parents learn that they can tenderly embrace their children with open arms that let them go. Knowing where our children are—in God—constitutes effective prayer and also enhances the quality of our conscientious human caring. A popular automobile bumper sticker asks, "Do you know where your children are?" Oh yes we do, and so does God!
If such liberating love constitutes prayer for the safety and progress of our loved ones, can't we reason that worry is a form of mental malpractice? Worry must be faced down wisely, because it subtly comes in the guise of love. Although loving and enthusiastic consideration for the well-being of our children is indispensable, we can recognize fearful concern for what it is and disarm it. This is not to imply that somehow anxious thoughts become a power capable of making our loved ones vulnerable to error in some way. Of course not. Fear is a nonpower—it surely is not love—and can be seen as the impotent fraud it is, so we can get on with the business of praying joyously for our loved ones.
Through the study of Christian Science and our earnest prayers, we feel ourselves being gathered right up into the oneness of Love. In this consciousness is no homesickness or any other false sense of separation. Sentimental feelings of longing and of loneliness stem from the lie that man is outside of—detached from—God, Love. He is not!
We should deny the devilish suggestion that any circumstance, situation, or condition could move us away from the love of God. In reality, nothing could. We can affirm that man exists in God as His own beloved idea. And we can consummate this truth-knowing as we gratefully realize that as God's ideas we and our loved ones are forever safe and sound in God. Nothing can prevent man from being in his rightful home in God, Love, nor is there any power that could evict him.
As our human sense of love is evangelized, expanding within boundless Spirit, we will all come to understand and demonstrate more and more fully that we are together in Love.
Do we miss one another? No. We love one another.
