One bright infinite light

It’s been said that the sun was shining one day when all of a sudden there was a commotion on earth. A large number of animals were yelling about how they had found darkness in a cave.

The sun, being curious, asked, “What is darkness?” One of the bears blurted out, “You don’t know what darkness is?” A rabbit yelled, “Follow me and I’ll show you,” and hopped toward the cave. 

When the rabbit dashed in the cave, followed by the other animals, with the sun right behind them, do you know what they found? Light. Wherever the sun looked, it saw light. The brightness of its own being was all that it could see.

Just as with the sun in this story, everywhere God looks God sees the infinite brightness of His own being. It’s amazing what our God, the infinite, is and does. And it’s also amazing what we really are and can do. Being God’s spiritual expression—so much more than what the material sense of ourselves would suggest—we are really where and how God divinely shines; the brightness of God’s being constitutes our true being. Although present appearances can be deceiving, each of us lives to reflect God’s harmony, brilliance, and grace. 

The following extraordinary promise by the Discoverer of Christian Science and Founder of The Church of Christ, Scientist, is the theme for the June 2022 Annual Meeting of The Mother Church in Boston, Massachusetts. It details how God, through the light of the Christ, the spiritual idea of God, is transforming human experience:

“One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself;’ annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,—whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 340, bolding added for emphasis).

Of course, looking back on this past year, we might be tempted to focus on the darkness—the disease and division and war—that seems to have plagued the world. But this is where, as church members and friends of this church devoted to healing—dedicated to affirming and reflecting the divine, infinite light—we are able to see elements of progress throughout the globe.

The more we learn about the love, presence, and power of the infinite, we discover:

• There can’t be any place within infinity where something unlike infinite good can hide out and cause trouble. 
• In the infinite, everyone is valued and loved.
• Something good always happens—is revealed—when we prayerfully consider and powerfully affirm the wonderful nature of our “one infinite God, good.”

As the significance of these divine facts becomes understood, we will live with less anxiety and express more spiritual peace and purpose, and expect to see them better manifested in others. The brightness of God’s being will begin to be seen or seen more fully as constituting our being—governing our health and our interactions with those around us. We will begin to follow Christ Jesus, or follow him even more willingly, and his words to his followers will take on greater importance: “You are the light that gives light to the world. A city that is built on a hill cannot be hidden. . . . you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will see the good things you do. Live so that they will praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14, 16, International Children’s Bible).

Because Jesus fully expressed and demonstrated Christ, God’s restorative love and might, he was a master transformer, and is our Way-shower. Through every healing and each shift of the heart that Jesus brought about, he was proving the nature of the infinite and who we all are as God’s spiritual and individual expressions. Today, Christ is reaching all the corners of thought and removing whatever does not measure up to the infinite. Dark fears and materialistic misconceptions can’t help but disappear in the presence of this divine light.

The Christian Science Board of Directors’ invitation letter to the 2022 Annual Meeting, found in the March Journal, stated in part: “Church is where and how we work side by side to prove the inexhaustible love of God. Together, we address and overcome the aggressive enemies of church—whether it be apathy, self-will, or any of the beliefs of individual limitation, or the materialism of the world and the collective resistance to Truth. The Church of Christ, Scientist, demonstrates again and again that the eternal Christ touches, redeems, and heals hearts and lives.” 

Because darkness cannot be found in God, or in who we truly are as that brightness of God’s being, the aggressive enemies of church must be prayerfully acknowledged as having no influence on and being no part of anyone’s true being. God brings us together and motivates us to adore and forgive, cooperate, and be caring and productive church and societal members. We read in First Peter, “You are chosen people. . . . You are a nation that belongs to God alone. God chose you to tell about the wonderful things he has done. He called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (2:9, International Children’s Bible).

Not only does “one infinite God, good, unify men and nations,” but God “ends,” “annihilates,” and “annuls” evil. Is this a tall order? It might seem so, but it is something that the “one infinite God, good,” through a church whose members and friends are following Christ, can do. Why? Because when God looks at you and yours and your church, the brightness of His own being is all that He can see—one bright infinite light. 

Keith Wommack