AVID CAMPERS and those (like me) with wood-burning furnaces know that building a proper fire doesn't happen instantaneously. But with patience and persistence, a lone ember, or the flame of a single match, can be coaxed into a cheerful, crackling blaze. Perfect for cool evenings or the roasting of a marshmallow.
Perfect, too, as a way to understand how just a little bit of spiritual understanding can grow into something bright and powerful. The point is not to become discouraged by how small it seems at first, but to work with what you have—to tend and coax that little flame—and to trust that with persistence and the proper source your understanding will grow.
Of course, when it comes to spiritual understanding, the source is a given. I say "a given" because the God I've come to know through my study of the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's writings is infinite good, infinite Love. This Love is divine Mind itself, the source of all understanding. I've found a lot of relief in returning to this idea—that I'm not relying on my own mind or intelligence to develop my understanding, but that Love wants me to know its nature, and my nature as Love's expression. And that I can count on infinite Mind to nurture in me the understanding that inevitably forwards my progress.
