Our safety in God

With the frequent reports of random violence and sudden disasters, many people are understandably wondering how they can feel sure of their safety.

That question might also have been in people’s minds in ancient times, when they told Christ Jesus about the Galileans who were murdered by Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea, while they were offering religious sacrifices in the temple. Jesus commented on both that senseless act of violence and another event that the people were aware of, where 18 individuals perished when a tower fell on them (see Luke 13:1-5).

Jesus’ comments on both were the same. The people who died, he said, were not more sinful than others. And then he indicated that safety is found through repentance.

In its broadest sense, to repent means to think differently, to reconsider. According to the book of Matthew, this was the first word Jesus uttered as a preacher: “From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (4:17).

This is what Jesus’ message throughout his healing ministry was all about – thinking differently and reconsidering deeply our true relation to God, in order to perceive for ourselves the kingdom of heaven right at hand. Jesus’ teachings urge on each one of us a spiritual transformation of thought, an ongoing discovery that God is Spirit, divine Love, the creator of all and the source of all health, wholeness of being, supply, and safety.

Spiritual reality is not perceived through the physical senses or understood through reasoning that relies on those senses. But we are each equipped by our Father-Mother God with spiritual sense, the capacity to understand God, Spirit, as the Life of all, within whom we all safely dwell. St. Paul wrote, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God” (I Corinthians 2:12).

This innate spiritual sense comes to the fore as we learn to love God more, and to love others more by recognizing them to be God’s loved children, the expression of His being. A good God could not create evil or vulnerable offspring. The offspring of Spirit express Spirit, so we are spiritual, harmonious, and complete. The offspring of divine Love are unselfish and merciful, and abide safely in divine Love. The offspring of divine good are innately and wholly good.

This perception of the goodness of God and His creation brings with it a growing realization that evil is not the reality or power it claims to be. Every time Jesus was faced with evil, without exception the evil yielded and even vanished. We can take heart from his example. If, as he demonstrated, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, then we are continuously embraced in God’s loving government, wherever we need to go, in whatever we need to do.

The founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in the textbook of Christian Science, “God is not the creator of an evil mind. Indeed, evil is not Mind. We must learn that evil is the awful deception and unreality of existence. Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit secondary. Without this lesson, we lose sight of the perfect Father, or the divine Principle of man” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 207).

Our perfect Father-Mother God eternally holds all of us in the embrace of ever-present good. Abiding in the understanding of this wonderful spiritual truth, we feel the freedom of knowing we are always safe – and experience more and more, in tangible ways, the unfoldment of God’s goodness for us.