NO FATHERLESS OR WIDOWS

ESTELLE B. CRANE MAC GREGOR

The concept of God as wholly masculine was prevalent for many centuries, and while the Scriptures contain a number of statements of the fatherhood of God, they have very few references to the motherhood of God.

In view of the supposed superiority of masculine over feminine qualities, the loss of a father or a husband was evidently a great affliction in Biblical times. For the protector and provider to be removed from one's experience was indeed a bitter blow, which called not only for individual fortitude, but also for the care and solicitude of family and friends, who were admonished "to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction."

Through the revelation by Christian Science of the allness, nearness, and availability of God, we are now enabled to throw off the fetters of age-old concepts which have bound mankind consciously and unconsciously. That God is man's Mother as well as his Father was revealed to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, and this realization has been a turning point in the understanding of the nature of God and of His reflection, man. It has elevated the feminine qualities to their rightful place as pure ideas of God. The orthodox concept of God depicts Him as an almighty creator who often consigns His creation to discord, decadence, and death. The Christian Science concept of God as Father-Mother affirms that the Almighty forever maintains His creation in beauty, order, grandeur, and perfection. No longer is the wife deprived of her protector or the child of its provider, for the love of our Father-Mother God is understood as eternally present to supply every need and maintain joy and completeness.

The writer well remembers when, after the passing on of her dearest one some years ago, a well-meaning friend warned her that as a widow she would have to meet the buffeting of the world without a protector. In the light of Christian Science this suggestion was instantly rejected, for the realization had been gained that the only protector of man, who reflects the divine qualities of completeness, is God. So many instances of God's love and care for her had been manifested at that time that she had had ample proof of the fact that, as a hymn states (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 9),

He knows the angels that you need,
And sends them to your side.

Through the intervening years this care has been maintained, and never has she been left desolate or alone.

The Psalmist sang (Ps. 73:25), "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." The desire to find completeness in God, the source of man's being, invariably results in abundant proof that, as Mrs. Eddy assures us (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 151), "God is our Father and our Mother, our Minister and the great Physician: He is man's only real relative on earth and in heaven."

Isaiah gives this arresting, comforting thought (54:4, 5): "Thou ... shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name."

Some years ago a Christian Science practitioner was called to the telephone by a woman who was in great distress. Her husband was dying. She knew nothing of Christian Science, but had heard that it could help one in time of trouble; so she asked the practitioner if she could help to lift her grief sufficiently to enable her to smile at her husband as he was passing on. Her great desire was that his remembrance of her should be one of joy, not of sorrow.

The practitioner assured her that she would give help at once. As she put down the telephone the words came to her, "Thy Maker is thine husband." She thought, Yes, I know that is true, but now I must do some work for this woman. Three times, as she endeavored to turn her thought to the woman, the insistent words came, "Thy Maker is thine husband." The third time she recognized this as an angel message from God and stopped to ponder its meaning. Why, of course, she reasoned, since "thy Maker is thine husband" there is no such thing as a dying husband in all of God's universe, and there is nothing to grieve over. In a few minutes the telephone rang again, and with joy the woman announced that her husband had sat up in bed and had asked for something to eat. He was permanently healed through the practitioner's realization of man's inviolable relationship to his Maker.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy declares (p. 332), "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation." This tender relationship cognizes no fatherless, motherless, widowed, or orphaned, but knows only man in God's own image, who eternally expresses the fullness of life and joy. Forever down the ages the words of our Father-Mother God, as implied in Jesus' parable, ring with divine assurance (Luke 15:31), "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine."

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