Testimony of Healing April 18, 2005 Issue

PROTECTION ON THE FREEWAY

JUDY GILFORD

Several months ago, I had an early-morning appointment in town. I set the alarm to ensure I'd be up in time. However, I found myself waking up a good hour before the alarm was due to go off. I tried to turn over and go back to sleep, but couldn't. Instead, I decided to pray.

Two phrases kept repeating themselves to me. "Clad in the panoply of Love," and "Everlasting arms of Love / Are beneath, around, above." The "Love" in both cases is the Love that is God Himself.

The first phrase comes from a sentence in Science and Health that reads in full: "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you" (p. 571). I knew that a panoply was a suit of armor, and I found this wonderfully reassuring. I also knew enough about armor to appreciate that nothing could pierce it and threaten the person wearing it. The other thought I had about Love that morning comes in the opening of a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 53).