Love's Lesson Is Lasting

[Of Special Interest to Children]

LOIS B. EGELI

In the days when most junkmen used horses to pull their wagons, a little girl learned a lesson about love that she never forgot. The little girl's name was Lori. She had been learning about God in a Christian Science Sunday School and from the Bible stories her mother read to her.

One day when Lori was out playing, an old horse and wagon came down the street. The wagon creaked under a heavy load of junk. The tired old horse was pulling hard, but the driver kept beating him with a whip to make him go faster. It seemed to Lori that he was beating the horse without mercy.

Now Lori was very tenderhearted and couldn't bear to see anything hurt. She did wish she could do something to help. She went into the house and tearfully told her mother about the poor old horse.

Lori's mother knew what wonderful things God, Truth, can do. So she reminded the little girl that being sorry for the horse just made it harder for him, but that by knowing the truth, Lori could help him.

Lori wiped her tears and thought about this. Of course she didn't want to make it harder for the horse. And she did want to help him.

Then she remembered these words from the Bible on the Sunday School wall: "God is love" (I John 4:8).

She thought: "Why, of course! If God is Love, one of Love's ideas can't hurt another, because they are both reflections of Love."

Lori knew this was true. She was satisfied that it was true, and she was glad that it was true. So she went back to her playing.

In a few days the same junkman and his horse and wagon came along again. But this time the horse fairly pranced down the street! He held his head up high. A new straw hat was perched on it and his ears stuck out saucily from holes cut for them. Little bells on his collar jingled merrily. The driver whistled good-naturedly, and the whip was nowhere in sight.

Lori was so happy! She ran into the house to share the good news with her mother. She was so glad to have learned that it isn't loving just to be sorry when anyone is in trouble. It doesn't do any good to be sorry and helpless. It hurts! Real sympathy— love—is being glad that only the good is real, because God, divine Love, governs everything. And loving in this way helps.

All this made a deep impression on Lori. As the days went by, she was beginning to learn what the other words on the Sunday School wall really meant. These words were from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (p. 494): "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."

"And animals' needs, too," thought Lori, for she had never seen the man beat the horse again.

As Lori began to think more about what she had learned, she saw that these truths were true everywhere, always. She found that every time we see anything that seems wrong in any way— cripples, accidents, quarreling, or such—we must not merely be sorry about them. We must learn to see that God is Love right there. If that is so, then the wrong, or error, can't be there too. And we don't have to believe the error. Lori saw that this is the way we learn to follow Christ Jesus and do the works that he did.

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Where to Find Power

April 17, 1965

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