The miracle of Love

SOMETIMES people say, ``Nothing but a miracle can save this situation!'' What they really mean is that routine human procedures can't do it. It may seem remarkable enough for international relief agencies to work tirelessly to aid famine victims, and for individuals and nations to subscribe generously in order to make this possible. And indeed this does evidence a great deal of love and compassion in action. But even this isn't enough for some of the situations that confront us in the world today. What a miracle can do is to help that same love and compassion to accomplish even more by drawing on divine power and divine resources instead of just relying on unaided human goodness. Then we can start to see the appearing of what is infinite, unlimited, instead of just dividing up more fairly what is limited. There's never any condition beyond the control of divine wisdom, or any need too great for divine Love to meet. In other words, we have to open our thought to grasp more of the power of divine Love, God, the creative Principle of man and the universe. Extreme conditions such as droughts and floods, and the hardships that follow from them, are no part of God's creation but are perversions of it. So we always have divine authority in combating them and freeing ourselves and others from subjection to their effects. Christ Jesus gave an outstanding example of God's power when he fed the multitude in the wilderness with a few loaves and fishes. To him it was natural, and not miraculous, to receive from God just what was needed to meet a particular need, however challenging it might seem. He was confident that divine Love, which he called Father, was able to care for each and every situation. Shortly afterward, Jesus rebuked those who continued to follow him for not seeing the significance of what had happened. He said, ``Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.'' 1 His goal wasn't just to produce food but to show the actual, eternal source of man's provision and well-being. And he didn't look on this experience as exceptional. It seems remarkable only to limited, stereotyped human thought, which refuses to admit the validity of anything contrary to its own expectations. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives this definition of ``miracle'': ``That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science.'' 2 We don't really make a miracle happen, but we can let one happen if we expand our expectancy of good and relinquish preconceived notions, human will, human pride; if we pray with the depth of conviction that trusts God's unfailing care for man. Divine Love provides unstintingly for its creation. And a miracle represents the demonstration of this divine provision in human experience. It's natural and not miraculous for good to appear more and more fully when we begin to think of ourselves as God's infinite, satisfied spiritual offspring and not as limited, materially-minded, deprived mortals. Mrs. Eddy writes: ``Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.'' She continues, ``The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love.'' 3 The miracle of Love may take shape in fresh, new evidence of good. It often appears through the intuitive action of one individual, prompted to do just the right thing in just the right way at just the right time, even if he doesn't fully comprehend the reason for it. The miracle of Love is natural and can be demonstrated for the benefit of all. 1 John 6:26. 2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 591. 3 Ibid., p. 494.