Always Loved

The Bible presents God's omnipresent love for us, a love able to surmount every obstacle. I remember a time when I felt God's love in a way I never had before. It showed me that God was caring for my teenage son before I even knew he needed help.

He was found crumpled in an alley, half dazed, lying in the snow. Neighbors carried him to me in the wee hours of a frozen morning. He was shaking violently. Vodka, whiskey, and beer bottles, along with evidence of drugs, had been found with him. They feared for him.

No one else was home, and I felt very alone. As the neighbors left, they urged me to call an ambulance. I thanked them, assuring them I would immediately get help for him. I had never encountered anything like this before in raising our large family, and it was very frightening. My husband and I had raised this boy to love God, and we had always turned to God for healing. But our son had obviously turned away from the values we had tried to instill.

Yet great compassion flooded my thoughts. I felt that divine Love - God Himself - had found him. And Love would win. I reached out to God with all my heart, wanting to know what the best thing was to do. Just as I wondered if I should call an ambulance, my son cried out to me with the most urgent of pleas, "Say the Lord's Prayer. Say the Lord's Prayer!"

Trembling a bit myself, I began. "Our Father which art in heaven," I said. My son threw things, swinging his arms in all directions. But then he began to pick up a word or two of the prayer. He spoke sporadically at first, with violent actions in between, but more and more he joined in with me. By the time we were through with the last line, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever," he was asleep.

He was still shaking and sweating profusely, and I kept on praying. I repeated a spiritual interpretation of that last line, which I knew by heart. It's found in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy: "For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All" (Pg. 17).

With increasing trust in God's power, knowing that this boy was His son, I felt there was no one better equipped to take care of him than God. In just a matter of 10 minutes or so, the scene had turned from one of despair to promise. My great fear for his life, and concern for my own safety, were gone. Divine Love was surely in that room with us. In answer to my prayer for direction about what to do, had come his plea "Say the Lord's Prayer!"

Now he was sleeping peacefully. The shaking had stopped. I continued thanking God.

Through more years of trying times, as this son has gradually awakened to find his worth, the love of God has supported us. Since then our son has returned the love we showed him many times over, and we are very close.

There have been many times when my husband and I didn't know if Love was reaching him. Then, one day, I found he had saved every card, every letter of encouragement, every supportive word we'd ever written to him. (He'd never acknowledged them to us, and there had been many; when we couldn't communicate orally, we had written of God's great love for him and told him our love never wavered, because it was the reflection of the divine.)

Another line from the Lord's Prayer says, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Science and Health explains this, simply, "And Love is reflected in love" (Pg. 17). Our son now lives in his own home. We see evidence of God's care for him continuing, and we are still grateful.

Divine Love is always ready to help us in time of need, and the Bible shows this repeatedly. Love doesn't end with the wail of a siren; and the wail of a siren never blocks Love's presence. God is Love, who is present even before we seek Him. Love speaks plainly - there is no mistaking God's direction. God is never stretched beyond some limit, and He is always greater than any danger.

He sent from above,

he took me, he drew me

out of many waters.

He delivered me from

my strong enemy.

Psalms 18:16, 17