Are You Grieving?
Many people today are gaining an understanding that God and His creation are forever. And this enables them to be healed of grieving for loved ones.
The Bible shows that prophets and apostles discerned an unbroken chain of spiritual, deathless being. They accomplished healings that prove that sickness and death are not God's will for His creation. Elisha revived a woman's son (see II Kings, Chap. 4). Jesus Christ raised Lazarus to life after he had been dead for days (see John, Chap. 11).
Jesus taught that God's sons and daughters are the beloved children of one divine Parent - not fleshly combinations of matter and mind united, having a beginning and an end. Our spiritual identity is forever - indestructible, substantial, seen in such qualities as love, intelligence, purity, and joy. All of us are in truth that perfect, immortal idea of God at this moment, inseparable from divine Life and Love.
But what about death? It certainly appears that people become sick and die, and that we are separated from them. However, an effective way to start dealing with both the fear and grief associated with death is to declare firmly to ourselves that death isn't a spiritual reality. Because God is Spirit, and is All, materiality isn't the solid fact of being it appears to be; it never ultimately defines anyone.
Through understanding the law of God that Jesus taught, you can progressively become conscious of divine Life and of the permanent place each one of us holds in God. He is always caring for His children, maintaining their life, health, identity, and individuality.
When confronted with death, we can find release from tears and grief. We can refuse to give validity to the false belief that life is in matter. Instead, we can identify each individual properly as an eternal idea of the divine Mind - spiritual, not material. Death claims to be real and final, but if God is Life, and God is All, then death is still a lie.
If you are asking, "Why did this happen? Why am I alone?" you can take a strong spiritual stand that will lift you out of this mental slough. From God's point of view, death never has happened and never will happen. What this means for you, today, is practical. Prayer that affirms each individual's unbroken relationship to God can destroy the fear of death, or the ache of a void. The ever-presence of God, acknowledged persistently and firmly in prayer, enables us to realize that nothing has separated us or anyone from God and His unbounded goodness.
The truth of our eternal identity as a reflection of God meets the human need for peace of mind and contentment. As you pray, new opportunities may come to be of greater service to others. You can trust God to provide for you in the most appropriate way - and not fear that in joyful activity you'll be forgetting those you love.
"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the Christian Science textbook, by Mary Baker Eddy, asks, "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love" (Pg. 266). We can perceive this fact, trust it, and find that we can't lose any good.
When my mother died, I had felt I was well grounded in the understanding of her spiritual identity. But after receiving the news, I immediately dissolved into tears and uncontrollable weeping. I called a Christian Science practitioner for help through prayer. This brought the most wonderful perception that my mother was, in truth, all right at that moment, and had always been in God's care. I glimpsed how her identity had never been in a fleshly body that would someday wear out and die. I saw that instead she was God's spiritual image and likeness and would continue to progress. This brought me much comfort and healing.
In the words of Mrs. Eddy, who discovered Christian Science: "I sympathize with those who mourn, but rejoice in knowing our dear God comforts such with the blessed assurance that life is not lost; its influence remains in the minds of men, and divine Love holds its substance safe in the certainty of immortality" ("The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Pg. 295).
