From our own hometowns to Ukraine, prayer for divine wisdom can help win the day. Humanity is embraced by divinity, not circumscribed by materialism. This spiritual fact compels greater confidence in the potential for healing and progress in everything from individual bodies to collective bodies, such as governments and nations. 

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, explains, “The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 25). Jesus’ Christliness embraced everyone in need with healing compassion and grace.

How does divinity embrace humanity? And what are the practical implications of this embrace for individuals as well as larger entities? For me, the answer to these questions is the realization that right in the midst of limited and discordant material conditions, there is a powerful divine presence—Christ. It’s unknown to the material senses but nonetheless present and ever active in human consciousness. It is capable of lifting human experience above the limitations and cruelties of matter-based systems of thought and action. 

Furthermore, because this divine presence is not part of the mortal drama, but rather shines through it, it is not subject to any destructive tendencies claiming power over human life. In biblical terms, this divine embrace is the light shining in darkness, though “the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:5). Bible accounts show God, over the centuries, promising and providing humanity protection, provision, health, and peace. All those who place themselves under His care and live according to His laws can experience the fulfillment of this promise.

How does this divine presence make itself felt in a condition of war? Through spiritual sense: through hope, faith, fearlessness, poise, courage, and vision—all attributes of the one infinite Mind, God. Also through humanitarian qualities such as compassion, kindness, unselfishness, patience, and brotherly love emanating from the same divine Mind. Identifying these qualities as coming from all-embracing Mind and recognizing that this Mind is actually the Mind of each one of us, speaks to their innate presence within each consciousness, providing practical, life-preserving intuitions and actions. 

The quality of wisdom is particularly important. A Bible verse states, “Wisdom is better than weapons of war” (Ecclesiastes 9:18), following a brief account of a poor wise man who, by his wisdom, saved a city under attack by a powerful king.

News reports have told of millions fleeing Ukraine, others trying to decide whether to leave or stay and fight, and governments in other parts of the world wanting to provide an appropriate moral response to aggression and brutality without making matters worse. The government agencies and leaders engaged in these deliberations and decisions have an acute need for wisdom beyond human capacities—for divine wisdom, of the kind depicted in the book of James: “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (3:17). 

Where and how does one access such wisdom? Writing about the power that triumphs over oppression, with specific reference to the battle over slavery in the United States, Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health: “. . . oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon’s mouth. Love is the liberator” (p. 225). She also states, “Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way” (p. 454).

Wisdom is the voice of Love—God—heard in the quiet of unselfed prayer, which seeks to bless all. It seeks to save both those who would destroy the lives of others and those who would be their victims. The Bible story of Abigail and David illustrates the point (see I Samuel 25:2–35). Abigail’s expression of love embraced her husband and their household as well as King David and his men. It saved David from acting out of spite in response to her husband’s disrespect and saved her household from his planned retribution. Divine wisdom expressed through Abigail embraced everyone in this situation. Abigail’s words and actions illustrate the power of divine Love’s wisdom described in Mrs. Eddy’s poem “Satisfied”:

Love looseth thee, and lifteth me, 
Ayont hate’s thrall: 
There Life is light, and wisdom might, 
And God is All. 
(Poems, p. 79) 

The beauty of wisdom is that it is available to all involved in situations of conflict. It is nonpartisan and multilateral. It blesses all. Villains and victims can be transformed by divine wisdom, guiding them to embrace ideas, words, decisions, and actions that will bless both them and the larger human family. Cutting through the noise of raging egos, threats, ultimatums, and confusion, the inner voice of wisdom—the light that shines in darkness—can be perceived outlining a path of justice, peace, progress, and godliness. The source of that light is not human, but divine, not personal or national, but universal and spiritual.

We can pray to know that wisdom’s voice can be heard and accepted. It can win the day for individuals and for nations. Because it is divine, it transcends the human mind’s limited views of solutions and courses of action. Wisdom beyond human capacity is evidence of divinity embracing humanity. 

The battlefields in need of divine wisdom are not just in countries such as Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Ethiopia. They are in city councils and school boards, in voting booths and classrooms—where issues are being deliberated that affect the lives of parents and students, the responsibilities of educators, the obligations of governments, and the rights of all citizens to be listened to respectfully. In the midst of heated and highly politicized debates in these arenas, divinity’s embrace can be felt as the voice of true wisdom is heard and followed, leading all in paths that enhance the greater good and averting destructive choices.

Whatever perplexing challenges confront our communities and our world, we can each play an ever-increasing role in embracing humanity with the healing and saving qualities of divine Love, including the wisdom that provides satisfying, healing solutions to seemingly irresolvable problems.