The currency of Love
A Christian Science perspective.
Across the aisle from me on an airplane, two people were having a loud conversation. They were both Americans. The man asked the woman passenger what was her final destination. “Paris,” she replied, “for a six-month work contract.” Their conversation drifted to the euro and how much it had fallen. And they agreed how clever Britain was for not joining the eurozone and keeping its own currency.
It set me thinking about the interconnectedness of humanity economically and in so many other ways. Our world has become a global village in which every part of its economy is interrelated to the other parts. So when there are serious troubles, as we are experiencing now, there’s a need to find a solution that will bless everyone.
For me, prayer for mutual blessing is the source of such solutions. It opens the door to something that goes beyond material currency, that never loses its value, and is always stable and reliable. I call it the currency of infinite Love. Such currency is the circulation of God’s love in action everywhere and our response to this love. Love was the basis of Christ Jesus’ healing works, and of Mary Baker Eddy’s conception of Christian Science. Divine Love is omnipresent all the time, never withholds itself, never runs out. It insists on omnipresent goodness, and refuses to believe that any individual or nation can be cut off from God’s guidance and protection.
To put one’s trust in this currency is to admit that we are governed by a spiritual law and consciousness that are purely God-driven and entirely good. It also means recognizing that all people have access to this currency because each of us is spiritual, the offspring of God, divine Love. So our relations with others aren’t based on materiality with all its limitation, separateness, and strife, but on divine Spirit, which never loses its value.
Divine Love’s currency isn’t governed by material laws that fluctuate and can bring us to disaster, but by its own infinite perfection. It gives us compassion for ourselves and for any others in distress, wisdom in making decisions, intelligence in responding to any challenge. It is the circulation of God’s goodness.
Generally speaking, law can be described as an authority or a rule of conduct that is recognized by the order and harmony it brings. It is designed to bring stability and peace to a community. Man – meaning both men and women – made in the image of God is forever in perfect relationship with the divine Mind and in harmony with its law.
This point was proved to me when my family and I in Britain were saving funds for my parents. We thought the pound was stronger than the dollar. When my father passed on, we did well looking after my mother. But then the pound fell against the dollar, and because of the unfavorable exchange rate, our funds were cut in half. I saw how severely one part of the world can be affected by what happens in another part. But I also began to realize that my mother’s care was not dependent on anything but God and that divine Love was caring for her. I saw that the currency of Love can never run out. It met all her needs, and it was always available to her. The funds lasted her lifetime and covered her needs abundantly. The fluctuation in currencies and different exchanges never affected her care and provision.
The law of a perfect Cause, or God, and perfect effect or reflection, man and the universe, is ever in operation. This law of God is the force for good that governs all God’s children. Not one is left out. It is a law we can all rely on, and it brings stability and security. It transcends human limitations.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, wrote in her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures”: “The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called laws of matter” (p. 302).
God is a loving Father-Mother, the divine Mind that is ever conscious of His whole creation. Mind is constantly supplying all good and meeting every need through His law of omnipresent good. As we love God and one another, we experience the circulation of Love’s currency, and discover that each of us has full access to its treasury.