To help save the children

The tragedy in Atlanta hits home no matter where you live. Perhaps it's because the victims are children that the urge to dom something is so intense. People collect goods and money for the families who've lost children. They provide better after-school supervision, set up facilities for homeless teen-agers. Efforts are renewed to stop the murders.

These moves, riding on a huge wave of compassion and concern, are a good start. Add consistent, scientific prayer to that wave of compassion, and these moves will be swept forward with increased effectiveness, comfort, healing.

We're talking about a prayer of understanding. One that understands God's goodness and constant love. as we understand this goodness of God, realize that He is Love itself and is ever caring -- as we acknowledge this fact and live it -- we bring spiritual power into play in human events. If we would really know God as Father-Mother, if we would express more of this Father-Mother-love for all the world's children, we would measurably help to end this tragedy. When our love is rooted in an understanding of God, divine Love -- Love that is tender, wise, forever holding its offspring in a conscious security -- this love is a kind of living prayer. It has a way of cutting across racial differences and regional distances and helping -- even if we or those receiving the help can't fully explain now. Because this prayer is suffused with the love that reflects divine Love, Spirit, the good human efforts will have a solid spiritual thrust to carry them forward to where they are needed. The fearful are provided greater safety and assurance. The mourners are comforted in a way they can understand.

Remember how Christ Jesus faced a situation that was life-threatening to someone else, apparently a stranger to him? A mob brought him a woman they were ready to stone. He was able to stem the potential violence and save her. n1 And the same loving power Christ Jesus exercised then is here today -- just as the same demand he made for love is here today. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." n2

n1 See Jon 8:3-11

n2 John 15:12

If it were a child from your own town, or from your own block, or from your own family, you would do everything you could to help. Do we, any of us, care enough to do just as much, to pray just as earnestly, even if we've never met any of the children of Atlanta or their families? The brotherhood of man is a natural consequence of the father-motherhood of God. In that sense we're talking about people in our own family -- people who are in spiritual reality fellow children of the one infinite Love. We have every reason to care.

Mary Baker Eddy n3 once wrote, "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you." n4 That's a profoundly true statement. The more it's understood, the more it will be demonstrated in everyday life. Now, many of the people in the tragedy-stricken area may not have read the statement or even heard of Mrs. Eddy. But you have. "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you." If you were in charge of a young person in your family, you would see he was properly dressed before he went out.Can you mentally, prayerfully "dress" each child in your universal family -- that is, see and acknowledge that every individuals is, in his or her true nature, god's very expression, the protected spiritual offspring of divine Love?

n3 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science

n5 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 571.

Do that, and you will be doing an enormous amount to help save the children. DAILY BIBLE VERSE God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death. Revelation 21:4