For centuries it has been an established custom for individuals to exchange gifts on special occasions as an expression of remembrance and love. As we strive for a more comprehensive understanding of our spiritual existence as a child of God, we become increasingly aware that as recipients of boundless good from our Father-Mother God we have spiritual riches unknown to the materially-minded. We can and should share these riches with our fellowmen. In I Peter we read, "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." I Pet. 4:10;
What are these imperishable spiritual gifts we can give our brother? We can offer comfort where there is loss and grief, joy for sorrow, healthful activity where there seems to be pain and sickness, harmony in place of discord, love to dissolve hatred, and the understanding of abundance where lack seems apparent. There need be no special occasion or time to bestow these spiritual gifts; they can be dispensed whenever and wherever the need arises. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, says, "Wholly apart from this mortal dream, this illusion and delusion of sense, Christian Science comes to reveal man as God's image, His idea, coexistent with Him— God giving all and man having all that God gives." The First Church of Christ. Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 5;
During his ministry of selfless service to God, Christ Jesus elevated the receptive thought of those who followed him to the contemplation of the heavenly harmony of spiritual existence. On more than one occasion he proved to them that discordant experiences were the direct result of accepting material and sin-filled thinking. He gave his followers and all mankind the greatest gift of all—power over the false claims of material sense, belief in the reality of sin, disease, and death.
