Gratitude is that blessed sense of warm, humble thankfulness and appreciation which wells up in our hearts when we contemplate the goodness of God and His wonderful creation. This must have impelled the Psalmist to sing, "Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!"Ps. 31:19;
How much happier and healthier life would be if we consistently tended the flame of gratitude and never let it expire in our thought! Heartfelt gratitude is a potent prayer that magnifies the reality of good until we become convinced that harmony is indeed our actual experience at this very moment. Too often we take our blessings for granted, forgetting that through an active appreciation of every least evidence of good we can maintain the joy and gladness of our true being as the reflection of ever buoyant Mind.
Even what is called human good hints at the presence of spiritual beauty and goodness. The beauties of nature, music, art, the useful discoveries of modern physical science, all show forth, albeit dimly, the infinite variety of spiritual outline, form, and color resident in divine Mind. So-called material good is always a counterfeit of Truth, but through it we frequently catch glints and glimpses of reality, and it is helpful to look consistently for and appreciate evidences of good in our human environment. Mrs. Eddy clarifies this point beautifully when she says, "In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: 'I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied.'" Miscellaneous Writings, p. 87;
