In the second chapter of Luke we find the beautiful story of the nativity of Jesus. One can picture the shepherds who were watching "over their flock by night" receiving the angelic tidings of the Saviour's birth, then their hastening to Bethlehem to verify the "sign" given unto them: "Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
Although the well-known account had been read many times, the words "swaddling clothes" had never caught the writer's attention before. She realized that mankind believes itself bound from birth by material laws. Mary Baker Eddy's statement on page 255 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," took on new meaning, "As mortals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought expands into expression."
Our beloved Leader saw the necessity for putting off all that binds if one is to expand into the expression of his true selfhood. Such restricting beliefs as self-pity, self-love, self-justification, self-consciousness, self-will need to be abandoned, and the bonds of hatred, lust, ingratitude, envy, and the like loosened, for they seem to tighten as they are indulged, and leave no room for the expression of Godlike thoughts.
