Article February 1, 1988 Issue

Meeting Love's demands

Divine Love isn't something delicate and ethereal. It is God Himself, and we can see His power in action in our lives.

Elaine E. Ellis

God is Love. The Bible teaches us: "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."^{I John 4:16.} Christian Science shows us that because God is Love, Love is all-powerful, ever present, and constantly available. There is never a time when Love can't be called on, no time when God can't be expressed.

Love surrounds us constantly. Love never sleeps, is never off guard, and it never fails, because it is God. Divine Love can always be appealed to in any situation. And Love always responds. We can count on it. But Love is not something we can ignore at other times. It also makes demands on us. It calls on us to reflect God, Love. The demand on us to express Love, to bear witness to Love, to be impartially and faithfully loving in our daily lives, is the demand to express our true selfhood as God's spiritual, perfect reflection, man. Yet this demand is not burdensome; it brings the promise of God's blessing, care, and protection.

Our response, in practical acts of love, to the demands of Love, of God, determines our experience. In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy reiterates these divine demands for love in action: "Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power."^{Mis., p. 250.}