On a trip to South Africa, I heard a church member tell of an indigenous daisy (Gerbera jamesonii) in southern Transvaal that turns its head toward the sunlight. He went out into a field of these flowers to see them all facing the sun. Not one of them was turned in another direction. Each flower was turned individually to and by the sun. It doesn’t matter if it’s a field of three flowers or three million flowers, the influence and control of the sun touches them all.
Doesn’t this show us something about Soul, God, which completely governs its reflection, man? Mary Baker Eddy put in the Christian Science textbook a spiritual definition of sun as used in the Bible: “Sun. The symbol of Soul governing man,—of Truth, Life, and Love” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 595). The spiritual fact that man is governed by God, Soul, has meaning for human relationships. As we accept and acknowledge Soul’s government of man, this spiritual fact corrects the error of the human mind that pulls people in so many conflicting directions. Soul’s harmony replaces the jostling of personal wills with obedience to God and love for each other.
When we pray the Daily Prayer “ ‘Thy kingdom come;’ let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!” (Mary Baker Eddy, Church Manual, p. 41), we can know that Soul is embracing each individual. When we begin to wonder whether the other person, maybe a church or family member, is being governed by God, we can remember that Soul turns us each individually and without exception toward itself.
