Article June 28, 1999 Issue

Love in place of grief

Comfort is at hand.

By Stanley W. Hurst

At the time of the passing of a loved one, many people have turned to the Bible for help and comfort. For example, there's this encouraging promise from Psalms: "The Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life" (42:8).

Many years ago in what seemed a very stressful period in my life, I worked in an office during the day and cared for the needs of my only relative at night. I recall my apprehension at that time as to how things might develop if, or when, I found myself alone in the world.

This relative passed on. Seeking comfort, I remembered this line from a poem written by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy: "Then His unveiled, sweet mercies show / life's burdens light" (Poems, p. 12). What mercies, I wondered, would divine Love unveil for me in this situation? I had learned in my study of Christian Science that the true life of man is always spiritual, and never exists in mortality. Man, as the image and likeness of God, manifests the only Life there can ever be. In spite of the problems surrounding me, I realized that I should begin by turning my thoughts to the spiritual fact that Life, God, is always present and could never be extinguished.

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