Under God’s law

We were having exceptionally high winds that day. As I was leaving my house, I noticed that a neighbor’s garbage bin had been blown into the middle of the alley. I went to remove it, but as I did, the wind flipped the bin cover up. It hit me in the head and knocked me down along with the bin. Immediately, a neighbor was there helping me up and righting the bin. I had a painful lump on my head as well as other painful areas and some bleeding. I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray with me for healing.

After our conversation, I remembered a phrase from “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy: “Not guilty.” It’s included in an allegory that illustrates how the laws of God heal the sick (see pp. 430-442). In the story, after helping a sick friend, a man then becomes ill himself. He is on trial for his life, and his defense at the trial is that our true identity is subject only to the laws of God.

Under God’s rule of law, doing what is just and right can result only in good. God’s law is supreme and therefore is a protection from any supposed laws that would impose disease or injury. The final verdict at the trial is that the man – who represents the true, spiritual identity of each of us – is innocent of breaking physical laws “because there are no such laws” and is set free.

I felt comforted to know that I was innocent and couldn’t be harmed. I wasn’t subject to supposed laws regarding mistakes or accidents, so I couldn’t be hurt. Rather than focusing on the pain, I focused on how grateful I was for the spiritual facts that were being revealed to me about God’s government. I was also grateful for the practical help from my neighbor and for the immediate effects of the practitioner’s prayer. By the time I went to bed, there was no more pain. In a short time, the wounds healed.

Reflecting on this experience, I had to ask myself, “Why did it happen at all?”

The answer is that it couldn’t have happened under God’s good government. So, in reality, it didn’t. That conclusion seems absurd to human logic. But it rests solidly on the spiritual facts of divine reality. The Bible tells us what is true – what the divine reality is – namely, that our true identity is made “very good” (Genesis 1:31) in the image and likeness of God. As the reflection of God, we have power over the enemy – the lying material sense that says we can be separated from God and be hurt.

The continuity of our relation to God is maintained by His almighty power and eternal presence. Because of our unity with our divine Father, God, we don’t have a separate self or a separate history. In trial terms, we always have an alibi: We have never been in a situation where accident, pain, or suffering has reality, because what we truly are is spiritual. This means we are always safe.

The law of our dear God ensures that we can know this spiritual fact, whatever challenges we face, because “God is love” and this “perfect love casteth out fear” (I John 4:8, 18). That perfect love comes to us as the Christ, the divine manifestation of God, expressing the law of God in a way that we can comprehend.

In everyday life, there seems to be an opposite to the divine reality. So how do we deal with suggestions that something bad has happened or that something bad will happen? We can know how to deal with those false reports because of Jesus’ example in responding to similar suggestions. When he was tempted in the wilderness, he called the tempter – Satan, the devil – a liar and responded with authority when he said, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Luke 4:8). Through Jesus’ life and teachings, we know how to recognize the liar and its lies about divine reality, which helps us defend ourselves against whatever suggests that we are not under the care of infinite Love.

There’s a hymn with a comforting reminder of our security under God’s law. It says, in part, “Everlasting arms of Love / Are beneath, around, above,” adding that we are always “safe in His encircling arms” (John R. Macduff, “Christian Science Hymnal,” No. 53). The metaphorical picture this paints of divine Love holding and encircling us all, assures us that God is always present, keeping each of us safe.

Adapted from an article published in the Oct. 30, 2023, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.