When I moved into my new house a few years ago, I didn’t like the sight of the straggly tree in my neighbor’s garden. I often thought to myself, “If that were my tree, I would get it pruned to enhance its shape.” Then one day I noticed to my surprise that some of the straggly branches were forming an almost perfect heart shape. From then on I loved seeing the tree first thing in the morning from my bedroom window. It reminded me of “the great heart of Love” (Love being another name for God) that Mary Baker Eddy refers to in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 448). 

This experience taught me an important lesson about not being influenced by outward appearances. Even where there seems to be a misshapen tree, we can instead behold God’s infinite love. The physical senses may perceive imperfection and inharmony instead of perfection and harmony, but, as Mrs. Eddy writes, “The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere” (Science and Health, p. 516). In the same book, she also says, “All nature teaches God’s love to man . . .” (p. 326), all being the operative word. We can’t pick and choose what reflects God’s love and what doesn’t.

If we feel worried about our present situation or the world’s, we can turn to the spiritual facts—one perfect, infinite God, Spirit, and His perfect, spiritual creation. And we can always remember this fact, which, like all spiritual truth, remains forever unchanged: God greatly loves all His children.