Editorial February 13, 1995 Issue

The "Adorable One" who heals us

Mary Metzner Trammell

You probably remember hearing these lyrics of the old pop song: "A—You're adorable!, B—You're so beautiful! ..."^{From "A—You're adorable (The Alphabet Song)," with words and music by Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise, and Sidney Lippman; © 1948 (renewed 1976) and assigned to Budd Music Corp. & Aria Music Co. Reprinted by permission of Warner Bros. Publications Inc., Miami, FL 33014. All rights reserved.} And so on through the alphabet, as the songwriter catalogs the oh-so-wonderful virtues of his beloved.

Many of us speak loosely of "adoring" all kinds of things—people, pets, even material objects. "I just adore this cat!" we might say. Or "this apartment" or "this fudge."

So it may be a bit of a surprise when you first discover how differently—and how selectively—Mary Baker Eddy uses words like adore and adorable. She uses these words in connection with God and His Christ. In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, for instance, she uses the word Adorable in her spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer. First, she gives the Master's words "Hallowed be Thy name." Then, she follows up with the interpretation: "Adorable One" (p. 16).