On a clear night, looking up at the stars can awaken a sense of the grandness of life and a yearning to understand its mysteries, even to understand God Himself. Sometimes we reach out to ask, "Are You real?" The truth is, not only is God real; He is closer than we may have thought possible.

While it may be tempting to think of God as something or someone way out there somewhere, Christ Jesus' beloved disciple John was not vague or otherworldly in what he had to say about God. He said, "God is love" (I John 4:16).

Those words became very important to me when, during a difficult time, I turned to the Bible for answers and was surprised by the simplicity of John's statement. I thought about it often in the months that followed. During that time I moved across the country to accept a new job. My application explained that I had been experiencing a physical problem that would require flexibility in my work schedule. My employers had agreed to be as accommodating as possible. Most often I was free to live a normal life, but my menstrual cycle was preceded by several days of extreme discomfort. This had interrupted my work and school schedules so much that I questioned whether I would be able to hold a normal job. I had sought the help of medical specialists, but the prescribed medication did not bring relief and had unpleasant side effects. I discontinued that treatment. It appeared that I would just have to adapt my life to the problem.

I accepted my new job with enthusiasm and enjoyed it so thoroughly that I gave little thought to my health problems until I woke one morning in familiar pain. I began to reconcile myself to a bedridden day, but found it difficult. I genuinely loved my job and the people I was working with. I loved the activities we had planned for that day. I felt the utter injustice of my painful condition, and everything in me protested. John's words then came to mind, "God is love," and I felt that I knew what he was talking about in a way that I hadn't understood before. The love in my heart was God's own doing, and therefore I had all the power in the whole universe behind me, and absolutely nothing could keep me from the wonderful day that God had made. I got out of bed and freely followed through with my plans. In fact, it was not until some time later that I realized I had been completely healed. That was over five years ago, and there had been no hint of the trouble since.

Shortly thereafter I began a more serious study of the Bible and of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Further experiences have proved to me that it is reasonable and intelligent to rely on God for healing of every sort. Although not every healing I've had has taken place so suddenly, what I am learning, step by step, is opening my life to things that I truly did not know were possible. My health has dramatically improved, and I am learning to help other people in the way that I have been so helped.

John began his first letter with these words: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Word of life. .." (I John 1:1). He was obviously making it clear that what he had to say was tangible. There was nothing mystical or hypothetical in his teaching. What he was teaching of the nature of God was intended to be understood and to make a practical difference in human experience.

God, the creator of everything that truly is or ever was, is Love. That creative "In the beginning God" is Love. The Alpha and Omega is Love. The permanent, omnipotent, all-knowing Mind is Love. All the power that ever was or will be, all the substance and energy of the entire universe, is God, divine Love. Life itself is boundless limitless, unconditional Love!

Now, all of this would mean almost nothing to me except for one grand fact: we love. We know already something of what love is. And every day we learn a little more. How mighty, then, is John's tender counsel "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God" (I John 4:7). It is humbling and powerful to realize that we, right now, have the ability to know and understand God. As we actively love one another, as we take the time to listen to one another, care for one another, and pray for one another, we are also learning about the grand creator of the universe. We are actively living the truth of our relationship to Him, as His spiritual expression. I had known all along that I loved others, but when I realized that love doesn't begin with me but with God, I was healed. I had glimpsed, in a simple but powerful way, something of the spiritual nature of us all.

In seeking to understand Jesus' healing works, Mrs. Eddy came to realize that the understanding of God as contained in the Scriptures is the ultimate of all true Science, including the Science of health. " 'Love one another' (I John, iii. 23)," she writes, "is the most simple and profound counsel of the inspired writer" (Science and Health, p. 572). The application of the scientific divine Principle, Love, she discovered, results in the kind of healing that was accomplished by Christ Jesus and his students. Very simply put, the healing metaphysics of Christian Science is the practical application of the basic fact that God is Love. In founding The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Mrs. Eddy was organizing a church "designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing" (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 17). As we understand the nature of divine Love, we are able to apply the spiritual law of health, included in the Science of all that is real. The basis of Science is Love!

In following Jesus' example, in acts of quiet kindness and healing, we can understand God and His universe. The love of divinity we can know intimately as love in our own hearts. This love that we are talking about is not the human emotion. It is not a roller-coaster ride of euphoria, desperation, and everything in between. Rather, it has the stability of the unconditional love Jesus exemplified in his life. It plays no personal favorites; yet it comes to us in tangible ways.

As we begin to recognize God's love in our own hearts and lives, we can also see, in very simple ways, that the source and substance of good is God. It becomes more and more obvious that the old theory of a biochemical man in a material universe is not accurate. We are not this limited man at all. The substance of the universe is not matter; it is Love, God. And man made in the image of God is not material, he is spiritual—the expression of that Love. That means that you and I are not mortal, confined, as we may have thought. And we can expect to experience the healing effects that are natural to this discovery.