The textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, defines day as “the irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love” (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 584). (Life, Truth, and Love are synonyms for God.) And the “Communion Hymn” in the Christian Science Hymnal tells us, “Love wipes your tears all away, / . . . Midst the glories of one endless day” (Mary Baker Eddy, No. 298).
The blessings of “one endless day,” then, are not about time. They are about living in the eternal present, recognizing that our eternal Parent—Father-Mother God—is indeed always with us, taking care of us, without needing any advice from us on how to do it. God’s messages to us include forsaking conventional “me-ism” to embrace “we-ism,” expressing more love to our neighbor, constantly growing spiritually, giving gratitude for even the smallest things, comprehending that our prayers to comfort and heal are effective.
Now, after many decades, I like to ponder “day” when challenging what the world has to say about aging.
It reminds me of a time when I was working for several weeks on a particular project, landscaping our home. One of the young workers felt impelled to ask me, “How old are you?” My interrogator received only a jocular response, not a specific number to satisfy his curiosity! I have come to see my real, spiritual identity as ageless, but I’ve grown into taking this position.
I like to ponder “day” when challenging what the world has to say about aging.
Decades earlier, I’d had a transformative experience in basic military training, a few weeks after my college graduation, when I opened a piece of mail from my mother celebrating my twenty-first birthday. I was stunned! I’d totally forgotten I was turning twenty-one.
Up to that moment I had always been keenly aware of people’s birthdays, an awareness heightened during my college years as we all matured toward careers and serious relationships. To discover that I had forgotten my own twenty-first birthday—a life event of enormous significance in that era—took on added poignance since my fellow draftees and I were, at that very moment, being trained as soldiers to serve in the Korean War, and I was now eligible for more specialized training in the Army.
Instead of making me more keenly aware of future birthdays, this did the opposite. It put me on the path of striving to live by the healing injunctions on page 246 of Science and Health: “The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age. . . .
My own “birthday liberation” has been a continuing blessing to me and to others
as well.
“Never record ages. Chronological data are no part of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are so many conspiracies against manhood and womanhood. . . .
“Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.”
My ongoing demonstration of not drawing attention to measuring my “life by solar years” hasn’t interfered with my participation in our family’s celebrations; I mark everyone’s birthday on my calendar so no family member, especially any of the children, will feel they are forgotten. And yet, my own “birthday liberation” has been a continuing blessing to me and to others as well.
Each day I am gaining a brighter, clearer understanding of the significance of Christian Science, in living “one endless day” for the benefit of all mankind.
