Prayers for Christchurch, New Zealand
In the aftermath of a major earthquake, residents of the city have been dealing with a lot of challenges. The news media tells us the situation is a “disaster zone” and is showing images of carnage, anguish, and destruction. But are these images the truth?
God’s Science applies to everything: all time, all space, all cause and effect, all power and law. The Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, bears witness to man’s relationship to the divine. There are stories that tell us of the miraculous survival of people who trusted in God, Spirit—and even those who didn’t. As well, the career of Christ Jesus showed that the divine law that the real, spiritual man is forever preserved in God’s perfect image. It’s contrary to what we see on the news, but there’s good reason to believe it.
Mary Baker Eddy sheds light on the Biblical stories of triumph when she writes:
The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion, can heal the sick in every age and triumph over sin and death (Science and Health, p. 243).
How did these individuals emerge unscathed from such serious situations? And how can we help those who have survived but not without ramifications?
We can support our neighbors in Christchurch with our prayers. We can know that no matter what disaster we face, every man is governed by the same universal Principle. As the Bible affirms, we actually “live, and move, and have our being” in God, who is infinite Spirit and Love (Acts 17:28). So let’s know that everyone has the divine right to rest in the warmth, security, refuge and care that is not subject to disaster or shifting forces. Let’s expect to see proof of our spiritual heritage as the children of God.
Will you join me?
Posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 12:26 pm | Follow responses with the RSS feedTopics: World Issues | Tags: basic needs, natural catastrophe
I have been really thinking about Christ’s church being built on the rock and not on sand. That rock is strong and firm and cannot be shaken.
We can offer our prayers and to reach out to the communities that need our support.
I have been working with the idea that God is in total control now. As it says in Science and Health with key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
“Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever intact in his perfect state, and to govern man’s entire action?”
I’m praying to combat a feeling of hopelessness. Isn’t it true that it’s never too late for God’s healing touch?
This morning I was praying about how God’s infinite resources are available to the people in New Zealand. Whether basic necessities are needed, like food, shelter, and water, or whether it’s a sense of devastation that needs to be healed, God’s infinite love and supply is available and accessible in Christchurch and where ever else it’s needed.
Prayer directed me to John’s vision of the heavenly city in the book of Revelation and Mary Baker Eddy’s explication of it in the chapter “The Apocalypse” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (574-575). I wasn’t quite sure where this was leading, until I got to the part about the four sides of the sacred city being the Word, Christ, Christianity, and divine Science. What struck me then was that these four sides were/are indestructible, permanent, not subject to collapse. The builder and maker of the city, Christchurch or NYC or wherever we live, is God and, as it says in Hebrews (11:10) “it hath foundations.” In prayer, placing our dear NZ friends not in a danger zone but within this spiritual city, secure on every side, has be my way of being a first responder from so many miles away.
What wonderful ideas, all.
The word integrity applies to our sisters and brothers of all species in Christchurch. It comes from the word “integer,” which means one, whole.
When Jesus declared — and proved with his every act — that “I and my Father are one,” he was saying that there is no way this oneness of Father-Mother (cause) and child (effect) can be separated, divided, fragmented, broken apart.
So I’ve been thinking that, in the same way, the children and creatures of New Zealand cannot possibly be separated from their Parent, Love, who is not only their origin, their source of identity and individuality (oneness, uniqueness), but is their perpetual source of supply (comfort, sustenance, courage, hope, even joy).
The foundation and structure of their integrity has not collapsed, because it cannot.
I also think of this dear prayer written with an angel’s pen held by scribe Mary Baker Eddy: “For many years I have prayed daily that there be no more war, no more barbarous slaughtering of our fellow-beings; prayed that all the peoples on earth and the islands of the sea have one God, Mind; love God supremely and love their neighbor as themselves” (Miscellany p 286).
Nowhere in that sentence does it say “humans” only. “Fellow-beings” … “peoples” … “neighbor” are, in the largest sense, inclusive of all those who inhabit the spiritual, compound idea called earth.
We greatly expand our capacity to love, and ensure the outcome of our love, as we include each and every living, moving creation of Life in our prayers!
That would include, in New Zealand, everyone from penguins to petrels, from kiwis to kakariki, from oystercatchers to albatross. And of course the blessed sheep, who, no matter what their temporal fate, can never be lost to Love.