Father and Mother

Bringing a spiritual perspective to daily life

The discovery of God is endless. No one should be satisfied with just a fragmentary knowledge of divinity.

God is often described like a man - a superhuman male who may bless or smite. Yet many people feel that "God is love" (I John 4:16); that "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24). God is divine Love and divine Spirit. God is a universal power of good. And God is expressed in everyone. I'm a man, but I'm so glad that divine Love isn't a superhuman who wears pants and has a beard!

According to a book by the woman who discovered Christian Science in 1866: "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. As the apostle [St. Paul] expressed it in words which he quoted with approbation from a classic poet: 'For we are also His offspring' " (Mary Baker Eddy, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Pg. 332).

Now, God as Father isn't such an unusual concept. But God as Mother is an idea with which we may be less familiar. Yet it is natural to consider God, who is Love, as a power that is tender and nurturing.

The very expression of God's nature - that's our identity. And it is natural for you and me to express divine fatherhood and motherhood. We wouldn't want to confine ourselves to the expression of just motherhood or just fatherhood, any more than someone in a rowboat would want to utilize just one oar, leaving the other oar on the floor of the boat. Using two oars means working and rowing smarter, not harder. It's important to use all of the tools available if you want to move forward efficiently. Well, wanting to express - and to see expressed - more of God results in a full, worthwhile, meaningful life.

And it heals. Our family got a new puppy recently. She loves to play and play and play. She even sleeps sometimes! One of my children was out in the backyard, jumping as high as he could, and inadvertently landed on the puppy. She began yelping and just wouldn't stop. I saw that her leg was bent at a funny angle.

I picked her up and began praying for her with all my heart. At first it was hard because it seemed that the injury was so unfair - the puppy is so innocent. Yet my prayer took me further than just sympathy.

All of a sudden, in such an inspired way, I saw that Father-Mother God had kept all creation, including the dog, spiritually perfect the whole time. The fatherhood of God upheld her, and God's motherhood protected her. I reasoned that there is no penalty for being the spiritual creation of Father-Mother God.

The dog had stopped yelping by then. I was so happy I had to hold back tears when I saw the dog start walking. A few hours later, she was playing and playing and playing - normally, completely free of injury.

My conviction that God is both Father and Mother was more than comforting. It was a healing conviction. That healing took place in my thinking. By that I mean my thought was healed of the false concept that anything in God's creation could be out of the care of the Father-Mother, even for an instant. To pray, to recognize the truth of God and His/Her perfect creation, brings the power - the law - of God to bear on a person's thinking. Thought then determines experience. We don't need to leave the precinct of our own thoughts in order to pray and experience God's healing power.

Jesus Christ is an outstanding example of someone who expressed the healing compassion of God's motherhood. He healed men, women, and children, people of different backgrounds and social standing, all through an understanding of God's tender love for the whole creation.

And reflecting God as Father-Mother can make all of the difference for you and for me. We can begin by taking advantage of the opportunities we have to express more of God. A richness, a fullness of life, will come to light. Both our world and the world around us will be blessed tenderly.

You can read other articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine.

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