Lawlessness appears to be rampant in the world today. It is evidenced in great and small infractions of rules and laws, from ignoring the rules of the road to corruption in the highest offices of government.
I used to experience the former on my daily walk, regularly witnessing cars blowing through stop signs, running red lights, speeding, and disregarding pedestrians. Disheartened, I wondered when it would end. Then an even more discouraging thought came: “It will never end, because there is no way to enforce these laws everywhere, at all times.”
But I couldn’t accept this, so I began to pray, because I knew, through my understanding of Christian Science, that God governs His children through spiritual laws, or Christian Science.
The Ten Commandments, laws that God unveiled to Moses, guarded and guided the children of Israel as they went forward through a wilderness, after being freed from captivity in Egypt. In today’s society and culture, the Ten Commandments may seem antiquated, but they are entirely relevant and needed now.
When I married, my husband and I lived on a river, and he started taking me up the river in his boat. The very first thing he taught me was to make sure I kept the boat within the green and red buoys. This ensured that we would stay in the channel and not run aground on the sandbar in the shallows.
I saw this as an analogy for obeying the Commandments. They weren’t given to punish us, but to keep us safe. And God has created each of His children to be innately obedient to these laws in order that we may live peaceful, healthy, productive lives. To ignore them is like blatantly sailing outside of the channel’s buoys and then wondering why you have run aground.
In the case of the behavior that disturbed me, the authorities weren’t always present to enforce the traffic laws. But I saw that God is always present to enforce His laws! The laws of divine Love are self-enforcing and always governing man, which is a generic term meaning you and me as we truly are, each made in God’s very own spiritual and all-good image.
Man reflects God in the mirror of divine Science, God’s law (see Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 515). Therefore, as a reflection we are always obedient to what we reflect, not having another choice. We must move in accord with Him, as Christ Jesus so beautifully exemplified and practiced.
Mrs. Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, wrote, “God is ‘the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;’ and He who is immutably right will do right without being reminded of His province” (Science and Health, pp. 2-3). In my case, I saw that we each would invariably do what was right because we all reflect God, who is “immutably right.” It was our oneness with God that would cause us to be obedient.
As I prayed in this way to understand that we each are governed by the one God, the one divine Mind, in ways both small and great, I saw that obedience to just laws is normal and natural, and something we are all capable of. Obedience was not an option – it was the law!
I don’t know when I ceased to see vehicles running stop signs and such on my daily walk, but it ceased, and I have consistently seen compliance and consideration since, where before there had been that blatant disregard for the law and the safety of others.
While this is a small example of God’s law in action, this law of Love is nevertheless applicable to all mankind in all countries and governments, at all times. We can pray to see this self-enforcing law in action, guiding, protecting, and caring for all, now and throughout all time.
