Love at work in Egypt – and everywhere

A riveted world watched as events in Egypt last week impacted the globe. We know a good deal about the surface happenings, but significant as they are, they pale compared to what’s really been going on beneath the surface. And not just in Egypt. In us, too.

What moved the hearts of the people to free them from their fear of violence and police retaliation? What parted their “Red Sea,” instilling the conviction of their right to be free of a government that appeared more interested in remaining in power than providing jobs and human rights for its people? What built their conviction in the worth of every individual – in a society that had long denied that worth for many?

On an even more expansive level, what moves each of us to higher positions, nobler aims, more spiritual perspectives?

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, made the following observation: “The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. … but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator” (Science and Health, p. 225 ).

Although it might not have seemed that way at first glance, love was on display in Egypt. If frustration led hundreds of thousands to Tahrir Square, it was love that kept peace central to their protests. Love fueled the protesters’ persistence and lent moral authority to their cause. Love suffused the courage that outfaced armed attacks and led Egyptians to care for each other’s wounds.

Love, a synonym for God, is the principle that creates and maintains each of us. And this liberating Love, insisting on everyone’s incalculable worth as a child of God, can continue to play a pivotal role in Egypt. How much does Love cherish its own image? How beloved of Love is each Egyptian citizen, each of us?

Consider the fact that mathematics wouldn’t be a complete system without “six” or “eight.” The principle of harmony in music would be incomplete without F-sharp or B-flat. Each number and note is invaluable to its principle. Without each, the principle would be flawed, no principle — and without their principle, each note and number would have no real being, no identity, no usefulness, no life or worth.

Like numbers and notes, we are forever linked to our shared Principle, Love. Without each of us, the expressions of God’s very being, Love would not be the divine Principle of the universe. Love and its idea are one.

Love wouldn’t be divine if it left us slaves to time, matter, economic systems – to mortality.

Even in the middle of the worst the world can send, Love sends the assurance that our worth is beyond measure, that we’re the expression of the Divine. Love lets us know we’re not really the sum of contradictions or imperfections, but so, so much more. Love’s message, its Christ, is with us, empowering us to access the higher selfhood that we all have as the very face of Love, the child – not of matter or material systems – but of God!

In Egypt, we can pray to see Love’s message in action, insisting that imposed societal conditions cannot define, or confine, the people. Love is whispering to all hearts that time, governments, and material conditions can’t confine God’s own image, His child. The higher ideals that Egyptian hearts aspire to, Love planted. And we can expect that Love will continue to nurture these seeds of idealism and hope, as they shoot up through the arid soil of accumulated government oppression, hopelessness, and acculturated fears.

So it can be in our lives. Let’s see Love at work in us as well, until the tyrannies of lack, fear, ignorance, and sin, of all enslaving mortal beliefs – disappear. Love wouldn’t be divine if it left us slaves to time, matter, economic systems – to mortality. As Love works within us, we are liberated from a false sense of who we are, and are revealed to ourselves as forever Love’s own light.

Principles are impartial, blessing all their ideas equally, holding all as equally vital. And Love works the same way. That means that God loves nothing in His universe more than He loves you! Nothing, no one, in all God’s galaxies of thought is more loved by Love than you. That’s big! Material conditions don’t have to make you—or anyone—feel unloved or small.

We honor God and start to pay our debt to Love when we let it fill any place that we’ve been tempted to believe is undeserving of love. Love can’t withhold itself, and as Love’s witness, neither can we be deprived of affection or withhold it. Whether it’s in our relationship with a family member, colleague, politician, or a religion and its adherents, we can let Love’s light illuminate any dark recesses in our thought. We can let divine, impartial Love bring care and warmth to areas of our heart, especially areas that appear to have grown hard and cold. This proves our love for God, and our gratitude.

We reinforce the potential for good in the changes in Egypt to the degree that we let Love revolutionize our outlook, our heart, and let our prayer mirror Love’s impartiality. In proportion as we realize the real power behind human events tending upward, with Love leading our prayer, we too have a potent role to play in advocating for rights in Egypt, and everywhere!