Holding the newest grandson of the family in my arms was a sacred experience. I marveled at this precious tiny one’s simple show of trust in, and receptivity to, being cared for, as he leaned on me and rested peacefully.
Holding him impelled me to think more deeply about God as both Principle and Love, whose tender, immutable, spiritual law of good upholds, sustains, and safeguards all of us in harmony. Is it possible for us to trust God without hesitation, assured that we are and will be upheld and cared for? Absolutely yes. These lines from Hymn 134 in the Christian Science Hymnal allude to God’s all-encompassing governance: “Embosomed deep in Thy dear love, / Held in Thy law, I stand” (Samuel Longfellow).
Christmastime, during which the birth of Jesus is honored around the world, is a time to reflect on Christ and what it means for us today. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, wrote in her book entitled Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896: “To the vision of the Wisemen, this spiritual idea of the Principle of man or the universe, appeared as a star. At first, the babe Jesus seemed small to mortals; but from the mount of revelation, the prophet beheld it from the beginning as the Redeemer, who would present a wonderful manifestation of Truth and Love” (p. 164).
The infinite ability of Christ to correct and transform lives far exceeds limited human ways and means.
The prophet Isaiah beautifully expresses the promise of the redeeming Christ through a spiritually uplifted view that soars far beyond the limits of the material senses. The Contemporary English Version of the Bible has him speak of Christ this way: “He will know and honor the Lord. His greatest joy will be to obey the Lord. . . . The poor and the needy will be treated with fairness and with justice. His word will be law everywhere in the land. . . . Leopards will lie down with young goats, and wolves will rest with lambs. Calves and lions will eat together and be cared for by little children” (Isaiah 11:2–4, 6).
This time of year particularly calls forth our deepest cherishing of and gratitude for Jesus and the healing works he accomplished through the gracious, saving Christ. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy describes Christ as Jesus’ “divine nature, the godliness which animated him” (p. 26). Jesus, described as “the Bethlehem babe, the human herald of Christ, Truth” (p. vii), showed us that Christ is ever present, communicating to all the truth of God—His love and goodness, which overturn evil in all its forms. He proved that Christ-healing is possible for everyone, throughout all time.
Christian Science teaches that we are unfailingly held by the spiritual law of God. Glimpsing this truth of God brings forth an innate spiritual harmony, freeing us from what would appear to be the hold of apparent material laws. Spirit, God, is all good, all harmony. And Spirit is the divine Parent, the creator, of each of us. As children of Spirit, we all include—fully yet individually—the qualities of divine Mind and Love, which are biblical names for God. The natural outcome of this is that our nature is entirely spiritual. Spiritual qualities such as wisdom, beauty, joy, intelligence, tenderness, wholeness, and alertness are ours to express in abundance.
God, who is revealed to us through Christ, upholds all equally. Christ, Truth, assures us that we are cherished, watched over, and maintained unbroken in God’s tender and powerful care and gives us the authority to deny power to so-called material laws that would limit our health, strength, or supply.
The infinite ability of Christ to correct and transform lives far exceeds limited human ways and means. Through inspired prayer we can see this in our daily lives, as I did so clearly some years back after one of my knees became painful and difficult to bend. Walking and moving was challenging, which was particularly troublesome, as my work required that I be on my feet most of the day.
Over the years, whenever I’ve needed solutions, praying as I was taught in Christian Science has shifted my perspective to a spiritual base that has brought about healing. So, faced with this knee situation, I turned again to God with confidence.
As we let Christ transform our thinking, we come to see that hate, fear, anger, envy, and sickness have no real ability or authority to affect our lives.
My motive was deeper than to simply regain my mobility. I yearned to learn something more about God and about my permanent oneness with Him as His reflection. I prayerfully acknowledged that spiritual law is always operating. That God, good, is cause, and man—each of us—is effect.
This passage from a book written by Mrs. Eddy entitled No and Yes was especially helpful: “Eternal harmony, perpetuity, and perfection, constitute the phenomena of being, governed by the immutable and eternal laws of God; whereas matter and human will, intellect, desire, and fear, are not the creators, controllers, nor destroyers of life or its harmonies. Man has an immortal Soul, a divine Principle, and an eternal being. Man has perpetual individuality; and God’s laws, and their intelligent and harmonious action, constitute his individuality in the Science of Soul” (pp. 10–11).
In light of what the material senses report, what a bold view this is—that we aren’t made up of ligaments, bones, and muscles but of eternal, spiritual substance, and that we’re upheld by divine law, which underlies the identity and structure of our true being.
I cherished these ideas as I prayed for myself. I also occasionally had treatment through prayer from a Christian Science practitioner. In the coming months, it became clear to me that because freedom and movement originate in divine Mind, they can’t be taken away by matter. I felt this truth as sustaining, preserving, powerful law. The Christ, Truth, enabled me to more consistently keep spiritual reality at the forefront of my thought, and in turn the knee problem impressed me less and less. The pain disappeared, and normal flexibility in the knee was restored and has remained.
Christian Science celebrates the Christ and its unassailable message of Spirit’s supreme governing presence embracing everyone—at Christmastime and any time of the year. Christ, always operating in human consciousness, makes Spirit’s supremacy known to us, nullifying the limited reports of what the Bible calls the “carnal mind”—the counterfeit of the divine Mind—which would cloud our native spirituality. As we let Christ transform our thinking, we come to see that hate, fear, anger, envy, and sickness have no real ability or authority to affect our lives.
When we gladly let Christ move upon our thought, listen to and heed its message of goodness, and yield to God’s spiritual law, we can’t help but see more of God’s perfect care evidenced wherever we are.
