On the evening when I read about Gabrielle Giffords being shot, I felt compelled to pray. At first I wasn’t sure how to pray. I knew I didn’t want to pray about specific human circumstances, so I started to think about God as Love. And I instantly got a sense and a vision in my mind of Love being all – filling all space, the only Creator and manifested as Creation. In this image all is happy, healthy and peaceful because all there is is Love.
Why is this image important? If Love is all there is, then there is no hate. If Love is all, then there is no cause of anything that is unlike Love. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of the universal science — Christian Science, teaches that sin and the sinner are both unreal. (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 472) God’s creation is entirely good, spiritual, loving, happy and eternal. Where, then, is the sinner? Where then is the source and cause for the incident? No where. And as this healing takes place in our thought, there is also healing and transformation in the physical.
In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?, Yancey illustrates how necessary grace and forgiveness are in our personal and nation-wide experience. When a situation is redeemed or healed in our heart and thought, we can go on with new views, unity, and work for progress and blessings for everyone. He depicted many nations who are in conflict today based on challenges centuries ago. Many people today don’t even know why their nation is fighting, it’s simply because they always have. He labels this as “ungrace”. I love this term “ungrace” because it makes things so clear to me — if it’s not grace we are thinking and expressing, then it’s ungrace. What a help this is in being proactive about healing our world and individual thoughts and hearts.
Eddy states, in her compilation of Miscellaneous Writings, “A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God.” (p. 354)
A few months ago, I wrote a blog about the Stanford University studies on the correlation between health and forgiveness. I see it this way: we are a window for God’s light and love; if the window is filled with dirt – resentment, hate, revenge, fear – then we experience as much of this substantial, healing light which is the source of all health, happiness, and peace.
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” (Proverbs 17:22 NIV) This healing spirit of Truth and Love has profound physical effects and certainly leads to transformation of mind, body, soul and the world.
For an additional article on this incident check out: “She does not have that permission from me” by John D. Clague.
Spirituality & Healing 