A shepherd searching for a lost lamb. A father welcoming home his errant son. These were the kinds of images Christ Jesus used to convey to his followers and others the loving, healing nature of God. For instance, he said of God’s ceaseless care, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8).

I was deeply touched when I read what the Discoverer of Christian Science, using similar imagery, shared with some of her students about her concept of God. According to one account, Mary Baker Eddy said, “It is like the father protecting and caring for his child; it is like the mother taking the little one in her arms and feeding it with the milk of the Word; it is like the tender shepherd caring for his flock, going out into the marshes after the lost lamb, calling, calling—listening for its little plaintive voice, taking it in His arms, carrying it home, and doing it over and over again” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Vol. 2, p. 337).

Yes, “over and over again.” The tenderness of the shepherd and the cry of the lost lamb paint a powerful mental picture of an all-loving Father-Mother God who, the Bible tells us, is Love itself. But what particularly struck me was that the shepherd does this continually: Infinite divine Love—infinitely tender, infinitely patient—continually expresses its lovingkindness, no matter what the circumstances may be. Love, God, is there supporting, sustaining, and meeting the needs of every one of His beloved children forever.

We too, like the little lamb, can trustingly surrender to this all-embracing love because divine Love never runs out, never wears out, never gives up. It is the power that creates and encompasses the universe and is reflected in God’s, Spirit’s, wholly spiritual creation.

Unlike a human view of a relentless need to repeat things over and over—suggesting heaviness and weariness—divine Love is fresh and new every moment. The sun does not tire by radiating light 24/7, nor does it get fed up with maintaining its rays. Even so, as Christian Science reveals, Love, the true Father-Mother of all, is expressing its creation continuously with ease and gentleness. Divine Love sustains and maintains its precious offspring constantly.

Mary Baker Eddy explains in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history” (pp. 470–471).

Unlike a human view of a relentless need  to repeat things over and over, divine Love is fresh and new every moment.

How wonderful is that! And Science is doing this continuously! What an important view of Love for us all to understand and accept. Eternal Love forever holds its children in its care and never lets them go, meeting each and every human need in each and every situation. Science and Health says, “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals” (p. 13). Love is 100 percent adaptable and gives all spiritual good to everyone, whatever the need may be.

At a point in my life when I had two young children to look after and was taking up the study of Christian Science very seriously, I became afflicted with symptoms similar to hay fever—except that it wasn’t seasonal; it just felt like a perpetual cold, with frequent bouts of sneezing all the year round.

I decided to handle this through my new understanding of Christian Science. It is interesting that the symptoms ceased during Christian Science class instruction (a two-week course of instruction on Christian Science healing), but returned after the course ended. However, I was able to fulfill my duties as Second Reader in my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and the condition didn’t interfere with my inspirational work or other activities.

Off and on over the next few years, I had treatment from various Christian Science practitioners. A persistent golden thread of truth I relied on during this time was that: a) This could not hinder my development or activity in Christian Science, b) The wonderful truths I was learning of the perfection of God and His creation would continue to grow in my consciousness, and c) I would progressively outgrow the old and be spiritually born anew with a better understanding of my Father-Mother God and of man in His image and likeness—and be healed.

This was a time of tremendous spiritual learning and progress for me, and ultimately the symptoms stopped—naturally and gently, without my being aware of precisely when. The condition just ceased to be.

When we rely consistently and unreservedly on God, Love meets the need, not just once but again and again. Love always out-persists whatever troubles we are dealing with. This is not surprising when we consider the infinite nature of divine Love. I look back upon this period as a growing time, as daily I would go to my Father-Mother, Love, and trust myself and my family to God’s precious care.

Mrs. Eddy wrote a wonderful poem that she titled “Mother’s Evening Prayer” and that expresses so beautifully the tenderness of God’s dear love for His children. The opening verse sums up the unfailing love I’ve felt from God:

O gentle presence, peace and joy and power; 
        O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour, 
Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight! 
        Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight. 
                                                                  (Poems, p. 4)