Two problems unrelated to each other were looming unhappily in my life. My mother, who was visiting our family, was not her usual vibrant self. Listless and indifferent, she moved slowly and awkwardly—an effect, her doctor diagnosed, of a slight stroke. Also, two good friends, fellow church members, had become impatient and irritated with each other, and I was fielding complaints from each of them concerning the other.

As a Christian Scientist, I knew the healing power of prayer, yet neither my friends nor my mother, who was not a Christian Scientist, had asked me to pray for them. But I was learning that while the Golden Rule prevents meddling in others' affairs, still the commitment to follow the example of Christ Jesus establishes my obligation to keep my own thought filled with the Christly love that does not passively consent to discord and suffering. So when I woke in the early morning hours one day, still disquieted, I knew that it was not sleep but prayer I needed. I turned to God for inspiration.

I also picked up a copy of one of the writings of Mrs. Eddy. This passage caught my attention: "I recommend that Scientists draw no lines whatever between one person and another, but think, speak, teach, and write the truth of Christian Science without reference to right or wrong personality in this field of labor. Leave the distinctions of individual character and the discriminations and guidance thereof to the Father, whose wisdom is unerring and whose love is universal" (No and Yes, pp. 7–8). One of the important things I was learning through the study of Christian Science is that loving one another in the context of Christian practice is not optional.

The New Testament counsels, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (I Pet. 1:22). Love is the essence of Christianity. It brings into individual thought the power of God, divine Love, and in some degree brings healing to whatever engages one's attention, just as a single individual carrying a light helps others to see. Love fulfils the healing law of Christ, summarized by Jesus in two commandments: love God with all the heart, strength, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

Love is not something that somehow has to be developed in a loveless character. In fact, loving is the normal status of man. Because God is Love and man is His likeness, it is entirely natural for man to reflect Love. Since love reflects Love, God, it can never be separated from His power, beauty, and grace, and each expression of this powerful Love also includes those spiritual characteristics. Love is immortal; therefore man's expressing of Love is undying, uninterrupted, and ever active. The source is God; the expression is man. Because the source is universal, logically its activity is to love universally, and the fact that man is the expression of that all-encompassing Love causes us to recognize the good in our fellow men and women and to honor them, without discrimination or limitation, for what they are—the sons and daughters of God.

What can we do when we are caught between seeing the problems of others and respecting others' right to seek solutions in their own way? The answer came to me with unmistakable clarity that troubled night: Simply obey the directions of Christ Jesus to love unreservedly. Anxiety and fear dissolved into a wave of love as I realized how effortlessly I could love everyone involved as the children of God. There swept over me such appreciation for my friends and their devotion to church that my concern for them simply vanished. Then, instead of being gripped with worry over my mother's condition, I joyfully acknowledged how grateful I was for her loving, lively character and the great and good influence she had been in my life. I went back to bed with unspeakable love for everyone concerned and slept peacefully the remainder of the night.

The next morning my mother wanted to go sightseeing! We toured the mountains, walked winding trails, visited little shops, had lunch by a mountain stream, and by five o'clock that afternoon, one of us was ready to return to the nest. But my mother still wanted to see and do more. Her debility had completely disappeared. Not a word had passed between us regarding my change of thought during the previous night, but later that evening she said quietly to me, "I don't understand your religion, but I know it has healed me."

How could this have happened? Christian Science teaches that love, being a God-derived quality, is a powerful healing agent. Wherever it is expressed, purely and persistently, thought is awakened to the Christ, always present to enlighten and heal. When Jesus expressed such love, multitudes were healed. Christly love does not require us to accept both the good and bad evident in human nature. On the contrary, it causes us to love what we now perceive of good and impels us to strive for the spiritual progress that increasingly enables us to discern God's pure likeness in ourselves and others, and to love that spiritual manhood "with a pure heart fervently."

What of the two quarreling friends? Never again in the many years since that time have I heard one criticize the other. They regard one another with the genuine respect that characterizes Christian unity.

Spiritual love that brightens the way for us is much more than human emotion; it is the effect of the liberating law of God. This powerful healing influence dissolves everything unlike itself, just as light replaces darkness. Love, the touch of God that heals and dissolves divisions between individuals, can accomplish greater understanding and patience among opposing factions, races, and nations as well.

Mary Baker Eddy knew the great healing power of love and its influence on the heart of every individual. On this subject she writes: "What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love" (Miscellaneous Writings, pp. 249–250). As we yearn to relieve the suffering of mankind and aid its advancement, we can recognize the tremendous power of spiritual love and know that the talent to express divine Love is inherent in each of us. Loving one another is the natural result of loving God first. It is putting into action God's law—the law of healing and harmony.