LOVE is the way ... to freedom and peace

oil-painting by Eva-Maria

Years ago, on a visit in London--at midday, I went for a walk.  Across the street was a park.  I stopped there and looked for a bench; the only one that was not fully occupied was one where a hunched-over man was sitting.  It appeared as if he was homeless.  I ask if I could sit down and share the bench with him?  He looked up … his hair was astonishingly a flaming red.  His eyes were blurred and almost as red as his hair … and with a slurred speech he said something I could not understand.  But I did understand the wave of his hand, and I sat down. 

He lifted a brown paper bag to his lips.  He obviously was intoxicated.  Leaning back, I closed my eyes.  A certain idea came to mind, “To God there is no intoxicated nor sober man, only His intelligent, beloved, majestic, and excellent man.”   “Wow," I thought, "there is so much love in these few words.”  

At that very moment an almost indescribable feeling came over me—it was wonderful, it was the healing love of Love itself.  I felt a great joy, and became oblivious to my surroundings, when suddenly I heard a voice. 

I opened my eyes and saw a young man sitting upright and looking at me with clear, bright eyes.  Briefly I thought, “Who is that?” However, seeing the red hair, I recognized him.  Astonished, but at the same time feeling that he needed someone to listen to him, I nodded and said “Yes?” And we started a little conversation. He asked where I came from . . . and I told him.  And then he wanted to know what I was doing in London, and so we continued.

He spoke with a resonant voice, a little accent in it and, telling me that he was an Irish man -- had a bad breakup with his family and girlfriend -- felt without a rudder here, lost, and so on.  He spoke matter-a-fact, not like one looking for sympathy.  I listened attentively, and then shared a few comforting thoughts with him.  But then I remembered, my break was over and I had to go back.  I told him so and got up; said Good-by and wished him well! Smiling and with radiant eyes, he thanked me.

As I crossed the street, looking back over my shoulder, I could see him with  arms stretched out on the back of the bench, straight and still, looking as if he owned the Park.  I said to myself, “This man had a beautiful healing.” And, “I wonder if he knows it?” Immediately I brushed that question aside, because I was sure he knew he was feeling better.  What he did with it was his business not mine. 

The lesson learned was not lost on me.  When problems pester, often there is not enough love in a person's life.  A lack of love can painfully disconnect us from ourselves, and others. When we fully realize a discord cannot harm us, or identify us, or our fellowman, and we acknowledge the spiritual power of a Love-provided IDEA, it dissolves the disharmonious situation, and we experience the freedom of Who we really are, and feel whole and healed!


 Such experiences are almost beyond words but for me they are the most memorable. 

 --Eva-Maria--

In I John 4:19 it says, We love him, because he first loved us.  
The Revised English Bible, says, God is love; he who dwells in love is dwelling in God, and God in him.

This spiritual understanding instantaneously dispels fear, and upholds good.  Then will angels administer grace, do [our] errands, and be [our] dearest allies.

 --Miscellany by M. B. Eddy129--

“Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief 

misinterprets nature.  Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens,--all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect.  The floral apostles are hiero-glyphs of Deity.  Suns and planets teach grand lessons.  The stars make the night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally towards the light”

--Science and Health, 240:1-12—

picture by Ashok Kumar

Pooram Elephants

Angry I clamored at the golden gate

Of Love. “Look now, O Love,” I said, “and see;

Look at the chaos, suffering, fear, and hate!

Can you not end it, O great Majesty?”

No answer came from that far-distant sky.

Lone must I toil the sad world’s tears to dry.

But ever as I worked some sudden gleam

Of joy and beauty from that world so high

Came glinting in through all the mist and dream—

Some message from that presence drawing nigh.

“Be of good cheer,” it seemed to say to me;

“Receive thy sight, and all my beauty see.”

Then when all early hopes and fears were gone

Heaven opened as to those of long ago,

And all its radiance sudden round me shown;

A glorious brightness more than earth can know

Enfolded me, and soft a voice did chide,
“All, all is beauty; Love knows naught beside.” 

Olivia E. Stack  “Love’s Universe,” POEM, Journal, Vol. 53 (March 1936)--

--To my mind, it is blessed evidence of the universal goodness and impartiality of God, that to every people and nation of the earth He has manifested Himself as Life, Truth, Holiness—Health.

--There is Truth in every religious system of the world, else it would find no followers. The Truth draws men, and the "actual of being" springs with joy to greet its author, in whatever clime, or name, or tongue, it wakes to expression.

--Under a clear apprehension of the intuitive truth that Life and Health are the Primal Source of being, the pious Hindu, Chandogya Upanishad, declares: "The Life of life ought to be approached with faith and reverence, and viewed as an Immensity which abides in its own glory. That Immensity extends from above and below, from behind and before, from the north and from the south. It is the Soul of the Universe. It is God himself. The man who is conscious of this divinity incurs neither disease, nor pain, nor death."

“God’s Omnipotence”

Christian Science Journal, Vol.2 (5 April 1884), p. 5.

Eva-Maria & a child on a beach ...

Abraham drew so near to God that he gained a clearer view of God as Love, and with a loving heart, his pure and compassionate thoughts addressed themselves to divine Love, for example, to save the people of Sodom and Gomorrah—because amongst those who were to be destroyed, some had to be innocent, including his nephew Lot.

--Eva-Maria

Strong love hungers to bless, and

not merely to behold blessings.

--Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot--

Moses loved praising God; he would exult: “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously, . . . The Lord is my strength and song, and he is . . . my salvation: he is my God” (Ex. 15:1, 2).  Moses had his disappointments, but his spiritual joy testified not only of his understanding of the presence and power of God in his life, but it also testified of his deep love and gratitude for God’s goodness, which he obviously tangibly felt.  The goodness was reflected in Moses’ spiritual understanding of ”I am that I am,” and it helped him to gain dominion over fear, especially over the fear of failure, which, perhaps, was the cause of his earlier hesitations to accept the task of bringing the Israelites out of Egypt—arguing with God that he couldn’t do what God expected of him to do.  Saying, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:11).  Yes, a taunting assignment, but “For each of Moses’ weaknesses, God added a strength” (Mysteries of the Bible).  I quote, “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared” (Ex. 23:20).

Eva-Maria—

It has long been a question of earnest import, How shall mankind worship the most adorable, but most unadored, - and where shall begin that praise that shall never end? Beneath, above, beyond, methinks I hear the soft, sweet sigh of angels answering,

“So live, that your lives attest

your sincerity and resound His praise.
”

--Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, p.106--

More love is the great need for mankind.

A pure affection, concentric, forgetting self, forgiving wrongs and forestalling them, should swell the lyre of human love.

----Miscellaneous Writings, p. 107--

God holds man in the eternal bonds of [His love],--

in the immutable harmony of divine law.

--No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy, 26:22—

In obedience to the divine nature, man’s individuality reflects the divine law and order of being.  How shall we reach our true selves?  Through Love.  

----Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 104--

With love,

Eva-Maria

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