When I was a girl, our family had a fruit cellar that was very dark. Only a bit of light shone through a small window on the cellar's far side. One spring my mother showed me a sweet potato that had rolled into a corner and under some things that were being stored. An eye of the potato had sprouted and grown yards and yards—over, under, and around obstacles of every kind to reach the glimmer of light coming through that small window.
This example of the irresistible attraction of light can be a helpful lesson in our lecture preparatory work. If we view our lecture as just another human activity, taking place in a certain geographical location in a certain time slot, then there may well be many other scheduled activities that could seem equally attractive to the members of our community. But if the lecture is seen as an outpouring of God's radiant revelation, nothing else going on could keep the receptive heart from being drawn to this activity just as naturally as that sprout was drawn to the sunlight.
In our prayers for the lecture, clearly the need is not that of discrediting the attractiveness of other activities, but rather of knowing that nothing else is as attractive as bringing to light the spiritual activity of God expressing Himself. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love, and not a vitalizing property of matter. Science reveals only one Mind, and this one shining by its own light and governing the universe, including man, in perfect harmony."Science and Health, pp. 510-511.
