Over the years I have loved pondering the following verse from the Bible: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
This verse describes so beautifully God’s unchanging, eternal love, which is impartially poured over all His creation. And what are these gifts that the verse refers to? For many years, I thought of the gifts primarily as those that meet our human needs—for example, a job, a home, friendship, an answer to a work or church problem. More recently, I have been seeing that God’s gifts also include inspiring ideas that heal a health or relationship issue, or banish an unhelpful character trait.
This message from James also clearly conveys that all good comes from God alone. How comforting to realize that we are not personally responsible for finding the answers to problems, whether our own or those that others bring to us seeking help through Christian Science, or those we become aware of through the news or our daily interactions. Rather, our role is to recognize the continuous activity of the Christ, Truth, that helps and heals. As Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Truth does the work, and you must both understand and abide by the divine Principle of your demonstration” (p. 456). And this is true regardless of the forum in which the problem arises, be it the workplace, home, church, or anywhere else.
