Prayer for immigrants and those already home
A Christian Science perspective.
As the immigration issue heats up, the debate over Arizona’s much-discussed immigration law is bringing strong opinions to the surface. Regardless of one’s personal feelings about this issue, it’s crucial to step away from the stir in order to gain a clear spiritual perspective.
My prayer has shown me that the one God cherishes and loves each of us, equally and unconditionally, as His precious child, the very image and likeness of Love. Everyone has a right to know deep inside that this is the only real identity we have. It is spiritual, permanent, and undefined by race, demographics, statistics, politics, and economic conditions. Praying from this standpoint, we can have a healing influence.
The Bible offers useful insights on this issue. When Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt toward the promised land of Canaan, he turned constantly to God for guidance. We can pray to know that this same God is directing those in leadership positions to implement just and unifying solutions in a timely way.
In praying about this topic, I’ve found it helpful to ponder the guiding power of God’s law – the spiritual law of Love that governs everyone and excludes no one. Prayer to see that this ever-present law is always operating can result in transforming, adjusting, and correcting where needed in every aspect of the human system. It can direct an individual wanting to enter the country to the right means, and motivate others to aid in the process.
The purpose of spiritual law is to bring God’s goodness into full view. We can pray to see this reflected in human laws that will bring out the greatest integrity and dignity of everyone. A God who is always good and compassionate couldn’t author hatred, frustration, or reaction, nor can these mental states block the flow of God’s goodness in human affairs.
God’s law of infinite mercy and justice demands obedience as well as wisdom, but all under Love’s command. This means that political will, human sympathy, fear, economic conditions, and lawlessness are not the prime movers. We can pray to see clearly that no one is excluded from the infinite care and tenderness of Love’s law – the only power. It leads us to greater understanding of our identity as Love’s likeness and away from profiling or scapegoating. We can include in our prayers those beyond US borders where similar issues exist.
Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science and the Monitor, devoted her life to proving that God’s law is a trusted guide through every situation humanity may face, now or in the future. In “Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896,” she wrote, “Like a legislative bill that governs millions of mortals whom the legislators know not, the universal law of God has no knowledge of evil, and enters unconsciously the human heart and governs it”
(p. 208).
This moment we can take encouragement from the promise that God’s goodness is at work in each of us and in all those who are striving for an intelligent and just solution to immigration issues in the US and elsewhere.