I love giving away flowering bulbs to my friends during the winter months. Last year, I tried to think spiritually about these flowering bulbs, to look beyond their promise of material beauty to something more substantial. Here’s what I learned.
I used to think my spiritual growth was dependent upon a continual acquisition and building up of basic spiritual truths. In other words, I thought I would experience increased spiritual development only when I had personally collected enough spiritual truths.
But Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells us, “Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 68). This helped me realize that our entire spiritual being is intact and complete right now, forever unfolding as the manifestation of divine Mind. Just as any of the bulbs I love to give away already have all they need to develop into a beautiful flower, so we, too, already have what we need from God to grow spiritually. God has created us as His perfect, complete idea and expression. As the flower bulb needs only light, warmth, and water to grow, similarly, our growth is impelled by the pure light of spiritual inspiration, the tender support of divine Love’s warm embrace, and the sustaining power of divine Life’s living waters.
