"Help us to know... that all Thy children dwell/Within Love's stronghold unafraid," ^{Christian Science Hymnal, No. 203.} a hymn implores. Could Love's stronghold be the unquenchable spiritual consciousness of God's protection and shelter, security and provision? In truth, man's eternal selfhood does rest surrounded by sheltering Love, which blesses and enriches us.

The word "stronghold" usually refers to a fortress of some type, but couldn't one say it also means, in this spiritual context, having a strong hold on what safety, comfort, and beauty really are? Our security may, from time to time, seem besieged, but if security's spiritual nature is deeply understood, we are able to reconstruct a sense of home based on Love's spiritual stronghold. This higher understanding of home withstands the onslaughts of evil, for Love's stronghold has the built-in strength of Spirit that resists all marauding thoughts. And its abundance of good can never be diminished, since Love continually sustains it with an outpouring of right thoughts, understanding, plus an inexhaustible supply of guidance and fulfillment.

Home in its highest sense is a stronghold, indeed. It is power for development and refreshment. Mrs. Eddy is quoted in one of her biographies as having said, "Home is not a place, it is a power." ^{Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977), p. 349 .}

Home as "Love's stronghold" may unfold as a mental and spiritual concept long before we see it humanly expressed. Mrs. Eddy informs us that "Consciousness constructs a better body when faith in matter has been conquered." ^{Science and Health, p. 425.} It naturally follows that when faith in material limitations and conditions has been conquered, the same spiritual law is available to correct our concepts and experience regarding proper housing and shelter.

Location, price, interest rates, and availability of credit and funds may seem to stand in our way. But no material condition can form a permanent barrier to our heartfelt prayer for the appropriate manifestation of Love's stronghold in our experience. Love and its loving expression are supreme. Behind every temporal symbol needed at present is a motivating, eternal idea of Truth, already forcefully operating and awaiting our recognition and acknowledgment.

This is not to suggest that we can somehow "daydream" into our experience a better body, companionship, or home. Nothing that is permanent or truly constructive comes about in this manner. It is not a "perfect house" that we realize and bring into our experience—nor a perfect mortgage plan, nor an absolutely ideal location for our residence. The meeting of our human needs is the result of our accepting spiritual facts, for our actual habitat is in Love's stronghold now. This truth, steadfastly held to in our prayers, can and will progressively free us from limitations of shelter and housing.

As true Christians, students of Christian Science strive to prove, even as Christ Jesus did prove, that our heavenly Father supplies every need of each of His children. The demonstration of home as Love's spiritual stronghold must benefit all within the sphere of our thought. It must comfort, help to develop, and protect each member of the family. Love's stronghold, like the fortress of old, draws within its loving embrace all receptive to its gracious care. Moreover, this stronghold has an infinite supply of good within its loving environs, and there each one has continually unfolding good in all its manifestations.

The writer recalls with deep gratitude the fruitage of a demonstration of God's law of provision made for her parents and herself when she was a young girl. Not only was the initial need met, but the house continued to serve as changes came about.

Through earnest prayer to understand the truth of our actual, spiritual habitat, the stronghold of Love, we can overcome all fear of or faith in material limitations and conditions and find the home we need.