When we think about environmental problems, we may hesitate to pray about them because we are not sure that prayer will really make a difference. I learned, however, through an experience I had that prayer is always significant, no matter what the conditions might be.

A tanker had run aground in the river near my home. The gigantic ship was loaded with oil, which was leaking out of a hole in the ship's hull. The fuel began spreading over the surface of the water. As the tide went out, the ship was not being supported by the water, and the possibility of a complete breakup of the tanker became evident. All this took place very close to our part of the city. Although the authorities undertook the safety precautions that seemed necessary, I still felt quite concerned.

At first it was difficult for me to overcome my fear of the threatened pollution. But I realized that I needed to pray, to turn my thought toward God, and to expect a solution to the problem.

"God is love," ^{I John 4:16.} says the Bible. I knew that man, created in the likeness of God, is the object of this Love. God reveals Himself to His spiritual offspring in loving care, sustaining power, and eternal splendor. Man as God's beloved child knows no other Love than the divine. Since God's love is all-encompassing and is not bounded by the limits of time and space, God's love exists here and now. The allness of divine Love determines the harmonious interaction of the spiritual ideas filling God's universe. Describing the relation between God and His creation, Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man." ^{Science and Health, p. 256.}

This is not an abstract concept; it can actually help us in our daily lives. For example, as I prayed about the situation with the oil tanker, the following words came into my consciousness: "The streams of Spirit flow clear."

To me, this meant that behavior that would lead to inharmony or destruction—and therefore would work against the divine plan—has no place in God's creation. God's love excludes and bans it. Nor can anything dull or pollute God's work. Whatever does not come from God has no claim as reality.

I was grateful for this insight because it steered me with divine authority to the eternal Father, who is at home in His spiritual perfection.

One of the psalms says: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses." ^{Ps. 33:6, 7.} I felt that understanding how God governs His universe would enable me to see that government at work, bringing out the proper way of resolving this environmental challenge in my city. As we draw near to our Father-Mother God, the perfection of spiritual reality becomes tangible to us. It changes our perspective, heals us, frees us of the fear that would blind us to solutions.

In this case prayer certainly overcame the fear I felt, and I believe contributed in some way to the resolution of the problem. This is how the situation with the tanker was resolved: despite the fact that after low tide all hope for successfully salvaging the ship seemed to be dwindling, the tugboats did manage to pull the tanker free from where it had run aground. The danger of a breakup was thereby eliminated. In the meantime the leaking oil was collected and pumped off. With the help of many volunteers the cleanup was quickly completed.

From this experience I learned that the cleanup of the environment begins in the individual consciousness. Selfish or self-centered thoughts may lead us to accept errors such as jealousy, envy, and hatred. But with an improved conception of ourselves as God's offspring, our thoughts become more spiritual and thus purer. In this way the purification of the environment begins. We no longer burden it with contaminating thoughts of selfishness and of ourselves as separate from God.

In reality every single idea in God's creation is individually loved and sustained by God. This pure love that comes from God is reflected by creation. United with God, all God's ideas are spiritual, and they complement each other harmoniously.

As the world's thinking about the present-day environmental and economic challenges opens to God's love, life-sustaining measures that seemed hidden before are being discovered. The primal thought of God as all-encompassing good is the source of life-sustaining abundance.

Some time ago children in our neighborhood found an auk, its feathers soaked with oil, lying frozen in the pack ice. Normally this penguin-like marine bird is found on the southern coast of England. Adverse winds and weather had driven it over to us on the northern coastal area of West Germany.

When the children told me about their find, I began by praying to know that because all of God's creatures are actually spiritual ideas of God, none could ever be separated from His goodness and care. Instead of viewing this particular creature as homeless and helpless, without a chance for survival, I prayed to understand its fixed place in God's ordered creation. It could never have left the range of divine Love.

The children managed to free the weakened creature safely from the ice. That same day it was given to an aviary for care. Later I heard that English sailors had taken the small seabird on board and released it on the southern coast of England on their way home.

Mrs. Eddy writes, "The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal." ^{Science and Health, p. 70.} God, who maintains His creation, is Spirit. But we learn through our study of Christian Science that He does not express Himself through matter. As we gain a more spiritual sense of man and all creatures, we begin to see beyond the material to the spiritual—to the infinite multiplicity of Spirit's creation. This does not mean we reject anything good. On the contrary, as Mrs. Eddy explains in Miscellaneous Writings, "In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: 'I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied.'" ^{Mis., p. 87.}

God's handiwork can only be seen as Spirit's qualities are expressed. And nothing can keep us from expressing these attributes, because they are our true nature as God's children.

Throughout his life, Christ Jesus was living proof of the eternal truth of God's love for man. But for Jesus it was not enough to rejoice in this love. His lifework was to bring the love of God closer to all people. Praying to God for his disciples, he said, "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." ^{John 17:26.}

As we see ourselves as the loved children of God, we accept the Christ nature that Jesus spoke of in the above statement. We recognize then that we can trust God to care for us and all of His creation. This knowledge gives us power and conviction when making decisions that affect our own or even mankind's welfare. Each one of us can and should become more conscious of the unbroken relationship of God and His creation in order to better deal with the environmental problems that threaten mankind.

God doesn't leave us alone. The inexhaustible reservoir of His care is open to everyone.