We Must Gravitate Godward -- It's a Law

by Kate Mullane Robertson

The Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, may not have been an institutionally educated scholar of the natural sciences, but I find her insights about the laws of nature and their applied advance to health and human affairs to be breathtaking.  Take her statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Mortals must gravitate Godward, their aims and grow spiritual . . . (p. 265).

An early career in education gave me many opportunities to learn about how the law of spiritual gravitation finds expression in the law of gravitropism.

"Gravitropism," also referred to as "geotropism," is defined by The National Academy of Science as:  "The directional growth of organism in response to gravity.  Roots display positive geotropism when they grow downwards."  In other words, there is a law of nature that ensures deeper root growth, because roots always seek out -- and grow toward -- a gravitational source.  And in collaboration with, not opposition to, phototropism (the same organism's irresistible growth toward light), each plant finds itself held in perfect balance between deep root system and a vibrant canopy of leaves reaching towards the sun's light.

Perhaps Eddy could speak with confidence and authority about our gravitation Godward, or, Love-ward, because of what she had witnessed and experienced as a student of nature.  She wrote in Science and Health, "All nature teaches God's love to man . . ." (p.326).  And "man" here is a spiritual term for each of us.

She also encourages us to pray daily: "'Thy kingdom come;' let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!" (Manual of the Mother Church, p. 41).

Understanding that God's Word is enriching "the affections of all mankind" -- without partiality -- provides a platform of common trust for navigating human affairs.  It seems to me to be the law of individual and collective "gravitropism" in operation -- our constant draw toward our source, Love -- and it is as reliable as a root's inability to resist the call of its growth toward the source that holds the entire ecosystem in place on earth.

And this -- takes my breath away.

The Christian Science Journal (October 2025)