AT this Christmas season our thoughts turn with special loving gratitude to the story, familiar to us from childhood, of the birth of the child Jesus. We recall each incident of that first Christmas night: the watchful shepherds tending their flocks on the lonely hills of Judea, probably thinking of and praying for the advent of the promised Messiah, when upon their startled gaze dawned the angelic vision with its glorious message of "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men;" the dimly lighted stable with its lowly manger; the young mother whose pure spiritual concept of God as the only creator had enabled her to bring forth her child, the beloved babe, who, as Mary Baker Eddy so beautifully expresses it in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 332), "was appointed to speak God's word and to appear to mortals in such a form of humanity as they could understand as well as perceive;" the Wisemen with their costly gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; and in the background, almost unnoticed, the faithful Joseph, who through his spiritual insight and unselfed love, was prepared to protect and care for the young child until such time as Christ Jesus was ready to embark upon his life-mission.
As we think upon this scene, and ponder the deep spiritual import of that first Christmas Day, an intense longing to understand the true meaning of its message fills our hearts. Mrs. Eddy, in speaking of our Master, Christ Jesus, gives us the key to this message, and to Jesus' glorious life of love and service to mankind, when in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 162) she writes, "To carry out his holy purpose, he must be oblivious of human self." "Oblivious of human self"! What a wealth of meaning lies in those few words !
Surely, then, in order to follow in the footsteps of our Way-shower we also must become "oblivious of human self." On first thought it may seem that the task is too stupendous for frail humanity to attempt; and yet, have we not the Master's own words, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me"? Jesus loved mankind too dearly, and understood their needs and weaknesses too clearly, to mock them with an impossible command; and so we know that we also can learn to deny self and overcome the false beliefs of material sense which at times seem so real and formidable.
