Rosie - The Christian Science Sentinel, Dec. 11, 2006
Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to pray for the world.
With the various disruptive events on our planet, I have tried to focus on the good, and understand more of the nature of God’s government. But I keep coming back again and again to one question—how can I pray for someone, something, halfway across the world, and know whether my prayers are actually helping?
Earlier this year, I helped form an online forum for teenagers around the world who share a common interest in a certain Japanese animation series. A few weeks ago, one of the Indonesian members posted a message saying that a close friend of hers had been hit in the face with a soccer ball while wearing glasses. She asked us to please pray for her friend.
Our online forum includes members who live near some of the areas hit by disasters that have been highlighted in the news—like the huge tsunami near Jakarta, Indonesia, and the wildfi res in Southern California. When thinking about these crises, I always tried to keep those members in mind when I spoke to God. This message from my Indonesian friend, however, was the first personal difficulty to be posted on our forum, and it marked the first time one of the members had directly requested our prayers.
Right away, I thought about the unique relationship between God and man. The Bible says that
…God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Gen. 1:27)
I figured this idea must be pretty important for it to be written three different ways in one verse. To me, it means that we, the children of God, can’t include anything unlike God, who is all good. He is the original and we are His precise image, so our thoughts and experiences must also be totally good.Christian Science teaches that we refl ect God. If you tap your nose in front of a mirror, your reflection won’t reach down and touch your toes. I knew that God and God’s reflection must also be equally connected.
This got me thinking about the spiritual qualities we reflect from God that might apply to the situation. First, I thought about harmony. I know that God’s kingdom is utterly harmonious. Any harmful disruption— in this case, the force of a soccer ball—has no place in heaven. Instead, I saw a soccer ball representing the joy that it brings to the many people around the world who love the game of soccer. And I thought about safety. I know that all of God’s ideas are safe beneath His “sheltering wing.” His everpresent watchfulness over His children could not in any way, shape, or form allow for any accidents or harmful actions to take place. God, the Shepherd, watches over His flock. So, I thought, how could a fun game of soccer turn into a joyless, hurtful activity?
And finally, I thought about God as Love. It was quite apparent to me that my Internet friend reflected God’s love in caring so much about this girl who was hurt. Why else would she have requested our prayers?
I sent my friend a quick message, telling her I would pray before going off to bed.
The next day, I woke up with a sore throat. At first I tried to ignore it, and went to school. But the pain persisted, and after my second class of the day, I realized I needed to pray for myself. As my thoughts drifted back to the night before, the spiritual qualities I had considered came to mind, and I recognized that the same ideas I’d considered in praying for this Indonesian girl applied to me, too. Then, I thought back to how I’d prayed when I thought about world problems. And for the first time, I realized how concrete, active, and effective my prayers felt when I thought about God’s harmony specifically relating to one of His children, rather than just a whole mass of something “out there.”
I went on with my day, with a close feeling to God. A couple of periods later, I noticed that I was completely well. My throat was no longer sore. Several days later, I also heard from my Indonesian friend. She said her friend was doing just fine and had even returned to school.
This was great news. I felt absolutely certain, however, that this girl had always been, and always would be, perfect in God’s eyes. And this same truth applies to the world at large, too.
Now I feel ready to face news events from a spiritual perspective. And this time I feel certain that my prayers are helping.
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