"All of God's creatures moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible." Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (Page 514).
That verse has always been a favorite of mine. I have also used it as a powerful tool in praying for pets and animals of all sorts. It is the affirmation of the true nature of creation.
In thinking about how we pray for animals, I was doing a Google search and found the following articles reprinted on a website named, "Humane Religion." The first article is by Allison "Skip" Phinney and was originally published in the Christian Science Sentinel. And the second article is reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor. Both were reprinted on the Humane Religion website.
Enjoy,
Rick Stewart C.S.
Humane Religion Magazine
The following article was first printed in May, 1987. But it could have been written today. The things the author discusses are part of an ongoing, spiritual process, that continues to take place within the hearts and minds of those who are willing to listen to the message of God's love and compassion for all creatures.
God's Animals by Allison W. "Skip" Phinney Jr.
Foxes and polar bears, seals that need saving, and apes that learn to "talk"—the list goes on. Have you noticed how much news and information about animals of all kinds is reaching the public nowadays? People have always loved their pets. But something new is happening. We're becoming warmly interested in animals in a way and on a scale that's new. It's an encouraging sign of he times.
Prime-time television news will sometimes cover efforts to save whales that have wandered up the "wrong" river or will report attempts to prevent pods of whales from beaching.
Recently we've been reading about the restored reputation of the North American wolf. Turns out he's an essentially upright character with considerable devotion to his family.
Should it be surprising, really, that as mankind matures toward spiritual consciousness we'll see an increasing appreciation for all aspects of animals and environment? As people grow in Christliness and spirituali ty,they perceive each other differently. Instead of seeing someone to go to war with, they find delight in the life-enhancing customs and celebrations of their neighbors. Similarly, we're beginning to understand animals less as something to abuse and to dominate and more something to take joy in and to understand.
The teachings of Christian Science guide thought further in this direction. They show, for example, that just as we don't know the real nature of God's man until we let the Christ, or spiritual idea, illumine our view of man, so also we don't know the rest of creation as God has actually made it until we're conceiving it spiritually. As the Christ, Truth, lifts up and transforms our thought we can also expect to come to understand more about all God's ideas as He has made them.
The book of Genesis, in the Bible, tells about the creation of great whales, fish of the sea, birds, beasts, cattle, and all the creeping things. And they are seen as belonging to God's good creation. Noah saves representatives of these species from the flood. And in place throughout the Bible, as in the book of Job, some of these creatures, like behemoth the hippopotamus (“Behold he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not”), are approached with a sense of awe for heir strength, and others are valued for their speed or beauty.
It is not God who introduced the violence of the
‘food chain’ into the world
But if we try to conceive of God as having created an animal kingdom which, however various and beautiful, expresses the generally accepted meaning of the word "animality" we run into great difficulty. Would God have made animals that seem designed primarily to dine on each other—a smaller species that must die in order that other larger ones can live? Would a loving and wise Creator have determined the short life span of a loved domestic dog, for example? Would He have shaped the voracious forms that seem to live only to attack other life forms?
If we believed this, we would have to change our view of God as a loving Creator. Instead it makes a good deal more sense to change our human concept of creation. What isn't in accord with God the only Creator, we can assume, is not the final word, not real and substantial. We need the humility to be willing to look for the spiritual creation that would be in accord with Spirit, or God. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy makes the point, "God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men."* Specifically, then, disbelieving the picture of unbridled carnivorousness, violence, instinctive behavior described by the senses, in favor of hewing to the divine facts of a spiritual creation, can begin to give us a different, healing perspective. And this perspective makes us more discerning of God's actual creation of the true nature of the divine Mind's ideas—in our everyday experience.
Many wonderful healings of farm animals and pets have come about through prayer on this basis. I recall as a youngster, for example, seeing our dog healed of a veterinary-diagnosed slipped disk and at another time of a longstanding lump on the head. Once when she was lost I was spiritually impelled, as I prayed, to walk off the road into the middle of a large cornfield, where I was able to go straight to her, pick her up, and take her home. Prayer in Christian Science has healed family cats of ear mites, distemper, an atrophied leg, and kidney problems, without any medical help.
But we can expect to see more than the healing of animals' physical ills. As the spiritual leavening of human consciousness goes on, we will be seeing something of animals' true being, more of their intelligence, individuality, compatibility, and purpose. Every one of God's creatures is, after all, essential to the richness and completeness of God's creation. And humanity has important lessons to learn from animals, lessons we all very much need, about the nature of love and fidelity, goodness, grace, independence, beauty, nobility—aspects of true being that God expresses throughout His creation.
Human beings have important lessons about love, fidelity, goodness and nobility to learn from the animals.
Mrs. Eddy makes this intriguing observation in the chapter=2 0entitled "Genesis" in Science and Health:" God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher al-ways protects the lower ....Love giveth to the least spiritual idea, might, immortality and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud." **
As we get a stronger, better conception of the wonder and the perfection of Spirit's creation, what lessons mankind is going to be learning about these links to the greater—what changes will continue to come in mankind's view of the Creator's creation! #
*Science and Health, p. 550. ** Ibid., p. 518 Reprinted by permission from the Christian Science Sentinel © 1987 The Chistian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved.
I have always been the kind of animal lover who would like to adopt every stray and support every organization dedicated to saving endangered species. But I've been forced to look for effective ways to live in harmony with our environment and to respect all living things. It's no surprise that the answers I need are in the Bible.
I began my search for them with the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Here the Bible identifies all forms of life as God's creation , blessed by Him and declared to be like their Creator—spiritual and good. And I remembered a statement of God's care in the book of Psalms that seemed to me like a promise for our own time. "O Lord, thou preservest man and beast (Psalms 36:6).
Numerous accounts of man's relationship to nature are recorded in the Bible. For example, when jealous enemies contrived to have Daniel punished by being shut in with lions, though he had done nothing wrong, the Bible tells us that he was preserved from harm and freed the next day (see Daniel, chap. 6).
God never relinquishes His responsibility for the well-being of His creation. He sustains and cares for all that is His, and this is a spiritual law we can perceive through prayer. I prayed to understand that in our effort to care for animals we express the intelligence and love that have their source in God. These qualities guide us to care for our domestic animals lovingly and to deal with wildlife wisely.
In caring for animals we express the love that has its source in God.
As I prayed I also turned to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science Church. She leaves no question about God's care for all His creation: "God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men" (p. 550).
I've seen the effects of understanding the truth expressed in this statement many times over the years, both in our own lives and in caring for our pets. But what of the conflicts that seem to arise as contacts between human and wildlife populations increase? As much as we'd like to live in harmony with the world's creatures, sometimes wildlife appears to threaten our livelihood or even our lives, by carrying diseases, for example. But this is all part of the distorted picture that the spiritual facts about God's creation corrects.
When our actions grow from our prayer to love all of god's creation, it is possible to find solutions that keep everyone—animal and human—safe. For example, there was a time when my family and I realized that we were surrounded by rattlesnakes. At first it felt like the kind of nightmare I'd seen in movies: We were hiking in the mountains, enjoying the solitude, far from any other hikers. As we reached a rocky summit we heard an ominous rattle. Looking down, one family member saw a rattlesnake within inches of his feet.
To some degree, every creature expresses God’s qualities of intelligence and love.
He was able to jump aside instead of stepping on the snake, but we were all shaken. I looked toward the rocks where we planned to make our picnic site: snakes lay in coils enjoying the sun. Glancing at the layered rocks around us, we began to see many more snakes in various states of repose. We were the intruders, yet we felt trapped as though we could hardly move in any direction for fear of triggering a defensive reaction from the snakes.
We began to speak to each other quietly, praying to understand that God governs every element of His universe—that every creature, to some degree, expresses His qualities, including intelligence and love. We recalled a favorite statement from Science and Health and said it aloud: "All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible" (p.514). The spiritual law of harmony was operating at that moment, even while we felt afraid. That law calms, protects, and guides. Trusting in it, our fear faded, and we were guided safely away from the snakes. No harm came to us or to them.
| Countless are the things thou hast made, O Lord Thou hast made all by thy wisdom; And the earth is full of thy creatures, beasts great and small... All of them look expectantly to thee. Psalm 104:24,25,27 (NEB) |
Whether we are caring for our pets, dealing with wildlife around us, or yearning, to preserve threatened animals in other parts of the world, we can affirm the active powerful law of God that is always in operation. It's our right and responsibility to see all creatures where they truly are—in God's care. Reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor
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