In the Old Testament we read about the “stretched out arm” of God. When the children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt, God promised them, “I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments” (Exodus 6:6). And the prophet Jeremiah wrote, “Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17).

The arm of God that redeems and saves, and that we read about in the Scriptures, isn’t the physical force of a physical God. Instead, understood spiritually, the “arm” of God symbolizes the spiritual and universal power of divine Truth and Love, which brings healing to human consciousness and reveals the kingdom of heaven on earth. For many of us, the bondage of today may ​take different forms than that which the children of Israel faced in Egypt, but now as then, it can include the slavery of materiality and sensualism that would weigh down and darken human thought, keeping us from discerning the freedom and harmony of spiritual reality. But no matter what bondage we face, God is present and ready to heal with His stretched out arm.

When struggling with a sense of loss and separation relating to several things in my life, I awoke one morning with a painful right shoulder. By the end of the day, I could barely move my arm. Knowing God to be a great help in difficult situations, as I had experienced many times in the past, I turned to Him for help. Even as I was in pain, overwhelmed, and afraid, I also had the gentle thought to let God lead me. Through Christian Science, God shows us the way to freedom. Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “Follow the directions of God as simplified in Christian Science, and though it be through deserts He will direct you into the paths of peace” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 361).

In my study of the Bible and of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, I found clear-cut truths that turned my thought from a physical view of myself to a spiritual model of thought. My study reminded me that I am not a mortal personality struggling in or with matter; I am the child of God, spiritual and perfect, and God is always present with me. Christian Science taught me that I should and could deny the seeming power of disease and suffering and rise to a spiritual sense of Life and Love as the only power.

The “arm” of God symbolizes the spiritual and universal power of divine Truth and Love.

I remembered that the writings of Mrs. Eddy and several hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal include references to the arm or arms of Love, God. I knew divine Love embraces each one of us, and I prayed to feel this Love embracing and governing me. It grew natural for me to include others in my prayers, such as those in troubled parts of my community and the world. God was encircling me in His care; He was encircling others in His care, too. God was loving me; He was loving them, too. As I persisted in this simple, inclusive loving, I found that much of the pain I had been feeling had gone.

Next, I remembered the statement from Exodus mentioned earlier where God instructs Moses to tell the Hebrew people that He will redeem them “with a stretched out arm.” What a wonderful message! God’s arm was stretched out to me; or in other words, His power was fully present and available to be demonstrated wherever I was in my human experience. Immediately, I thought of the passages in the first chapter of Genesis about man (male and female) being made by God in His own image and likeness. If God’s arm is “stretched out”—if His love is all-encompassing and always caring for man—then man, the image of God, must reflect this Love and express God’s qualities without any restriction. There is no pain in this right action.

As I prayed, I felt led to reach out and engage more with my community. This included my volunteering for another post at my church, participating in a new group activity, and opening a small office in town to support my work in the public healing practice of Christian Science. During this time I addressed a Christian Science students’ association, and I found much freedom as I turned away from concern about the physical sense of myself to God for the inspiration and ideas that He imparts. After the talk was over, a woman came up to hug me, and I was able to stretch out both arms to hug her back. What joy!

Several times in the past, I had felt led to apply to work at my church’s headquarters in Boston. Yet I had always drawn back. I did not want to leave my home, family, friends, and city and move across the country. I had always ended up concluding that this direction wasn’t from God. But it was also possible that it was, in fact, His direction, and I was acting like the child who would pull away from the guiding hand of a parent.

I was reaching out to God and discovering that He was always there caring for me.

Now the idea to go to Boston came again. I bowed mentally before God and thought, “If You want me to share in this way, show me what steps to take. I will set aside my personal desires and do whatever You guide me to do.” I followed each step that came without resisting. In about three months, I had accepted a job and moved. Things fell naturally into place. Not long after I started work, I had total freedom of movement in my arm. A couple of years later the problem recurred, but it was addressed quickly and thoroughly with Christian Science. I have been free of this issue for over ten years.

Looking back, I see that the steps I took and still endeavor to take at God’s direction were and are steps out of a limited, personal sense of things into the freedom of a spiritual understanding of Life and Love. I was reaching out to God and discovering that He was always there caring for me. Through Christian Science, which Mrs. Eddy refers to in Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896 as “God’s right hand grasping the universe” (p. 364), I was learning that I am included in God’s grasp. The laws of God hold everyone firmly and securely in His provision and love.

Christ Jesus didn’t refer to the arm of God, but he spoke of God’s hand in a beautiful passage recorded in the Gospel of John. He said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: … My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (10:27, 29). As we listen to and follow the voice of Christ, Truth, we discover that God, our heavenly Father, is greater than all; indeed, He is All-in-all. God being the All-power—the only power—nothing can pluck us out of His hand or separate us from goodness and Love. We are always as God made us to be: His image and likeness, reflecting His goodness and Love and protected by His “mighty arm” (Psalms 89:13).