Every February, articles and movies about Valentine’s Day tell us we should have that special someone in our lives with whom we can enjoy affection and celebrate love. More recently, for some, the answer isn’t waiting for that special person to appear but forging a relationship with an AI companion bot, which responds digitally like a friend or romantic partner. Either way, the underlying heart’s yearning is for a love we think we don’t yet have.
There’s an answer to that yearning available to everyone, which is the love we do have: God’s love. But to many, that doesn’t feel like an answer. Even for those who have experienced God’s healing power, when it comes to wanting a special bond, the answer “God” can seem too abstract. Yet there’s nothing like communion with God to actually feel loved. And when we become conscious of God’s loving presence in prayer, we find there’s nothing so tangible as the pure, spiritual affection of our divine Father-Mother, our “best” and “ever Friend” (John Ryland, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 224).
We see this in how Jesus communed with God, even in the most trying of moments just before his crucifixion (see Mark 14:36). He addressed God as “Abba, Father,” showing Jesus’ sense of God as always affectionate and accessible. We can think of God in the same way, and follow Jesus’ lead by seeking and gaining the holier, healing consciousness that is Christ, the true idea of God, which Jesus knew so well and exemplified in healing. When we let Christ uplift our thought, we recognize Love as the very source and substance of the love we yearn for.
