One Christmas morning some years ago, when I was pondering the significance of Christmas, I was struck by the following passage in an article entitled "The New Birth," to be found in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 18): "Thou shalt recognize thyself as God's spiritual child only, and the true man and true woman, the all-harmonious 'male and female,' as of spiritual origin, God's reflection,—thus as children of one common Parent,—wherein and whereby Father, Mother, and child are the divine Principle and divine idea, even the divine 'Us'—one in good, and good in One." I saw this as the true definition of the holy family, an omnipresent divine fact. I saw that every idea of God belongs to that holy family, and that no one can be lonely, for wherever the child is, there is the Father-Mother, and wherever the Father-Mother is, there is the child. Later I had the oportunity to prove this spiritual fact in the healing of a family discord. The words of one of the hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal became illuminated with fresh inspiration (No. 117):
Holy, Holy, Holy, . . . there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power [as Father], in love [as Mother] and purity [as child or Son],
It is well to remember that the qualities which human belief has divided into father, mother, and child as separate entities belong in Science to one consciousness. Thus each woman needs to see that she has her manhood, the masculine qualities of intelligence and wisdom, and each man his womanhood, the qualities of tenderness and love. But even as a human family is often not considered complete without a child, we might say that consciousness is not complete without the child-qualities of innocence, gaiety, simplicity. If we love children, then let us claim the presence of innocence, gaiety, purity, trustfulness, teachableness, and we shall certainly have them expressed in our experience in some satisfying way.
