“Thou art my God”! (Psalms 143:10). Reading this one day, I was startled by the depth of meaning that leaped out from the Bible. I had probably read it dozens of times in my life and been inspired and comforted by it. I had certainly believed and accepted it. Yet, this time was different. At that moment, I knew God as my God, the ever-present, all-powerful creator of the universe, and hence my creator, who loves me, tenderly cares for me, and knows who I am! It was a closeness to Him that included eternal existence, perfect health, and complete peace. It was as though a curtain had been pulled aside, providing a momentary glimpse of that heavenly state about which John speaks in Revelation where he describes his vision of a new heaven and a new earth. 

In Christian Science, we learn to give expression to this feeling of God’s presence through language that is given or implied in the Bible and affirmed in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. In particular, Mrs. Eddy refers to God as “Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love” (Science and Health, p. 587). God, then, is not a mysterious, unknowable, distant Being, but identifiable and knowable and always at hand. Getting to know God through these synonyms for Him brings to light what the divine presence means to us. We see Principle manifested in divine law; Mind in loving intelligence and wisdom; Life in eternal existence and activity, unbound by material limitations; and so forth. 

Yet, even as we seek to understand these terms for God, our basic yearning of the heart to know God in the way that Christ Jesus knew Him—as Abba, or Father—is undiminished. Jesus communed with God continually, and loved our Father so much that he did everything to please Him. He dedicated his life to God’s service and ultimately surrendered that life to this end, showing that his love for the Father included and was manifested in love for his neighbor—in fact, for all mankind. He was so aware of his oneness with God that he was able to undertake the works that the Father had given him to finish. 

A deep, thoughtful study of Jesus’ teachings and works shows that his mission was to demonstrate his oneness with God and to be the example for us to follow in every way. Jesus didn’t establish a form of ritualized worship, but taught us who God is and how we, too, can know our own oneness with God and please Him by doing the healing works Jesus promised we could do also.

I understood God as infinite Love, forever conscious of every one of His children and loving them.

How can we gain this deeper understanding of God? Study of the Bible in the light of Science and Health prepares our thought to be receptive to it. But studious effort alone isn’t enough to reveal God’s closeness at each moment. Just as working the soil prepares it for seed, but the growth of plants is achieved by the innate nature of the seed, so a desire to understand God better, humbly yielding thought to the divine, is a form of prayer in which we surrender a limited sense of existence for our innate, spiritual identity. This is God working in us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13), and by this we come to recognize God’s perfect creation and our unique place in it.

Though that flash of inspiration from reading “Thou art my God” lasted only a few moments, over the following days and weeks it never left my thought as I contemplated its significance. I understood God as infinite Love, forever conscious of every one of His children and loving them beyond anything mere human definition could describe, and I felt completely embraced by that Love.  

This sense of the divine nature and an immanent sense of Love’s nearness bring out what it means to be God’s image and likeness, as explained in the first chapter of Genesis. This is no abstract concept, no mere human idealism, but an understanding of universal Principle and its idea, available to everyone. It’s a fundamental, demonstrable truth about the nature of reality—reassuring, comforting, and practical in every aspect of our lives. 

Such life-changing moments come to each of us as we pray to receive what Christ is ever revealing to us. We can’t force them, or gain them by intellectualism, doctrines, or creeds. They come in quiet moments when a limited, material concept of creation yields to a divine or spiritual sense—our “conscious, constant capacity to understand God” (Science and Health, p. 209).

Warren Berckmann, Guest Editorial Writer