At this very moment, the source of all good for everyone, of each generation, is at hand. And all can know it—can know God and feel the power of divine Love.
It’s one thing to live downstream from a magnificent water spring. But that pales next to actually standing at the point of its origin and experiencing the power of hundreds of millions of gallons of water pouring out endlessly into ready channels, sustaining so much and so many. Much more so, the divine origin of all represents endless good and evokes boundless awe. It’s there that one feels deep appreciation for the magnitude of its very self-existence and for one’s own existence.
Engaging with the origin itself is infinitely more than being a “user” of what’s offered. It’s cherishing the fact that this abundant flow not only touches but fully includes us and all in its course, naturally, equitably, continuously. But to reach the source where one recognizes this inseparable connection, it’s necessary to know the way to it.
The source of all life and being is God, Spirit. And Christ, the ever-flowing idea of God coming to each of us, is the only proven way to it. Jesus, the God-appointed pioneer of the way, knew his daily existence was the expression of infinite, outpouring divine Life, God. His words and works expressed this Life, and he shared them constantly, selflessly, and effectively to benefit humanity.
For example, speaking with the woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria, Jesus asked for water (see John 4:1–42). The dialogue that followed never resulted in a drink of water for Jesus but instead purified and filled the woman’s thought with the living waters of Truth. It led her and many in her town to the well of all Truth, the real necessity, the Christ presence in this community.
How significant it was for the woman to be thirsty for the ideas shared by this man who challenged historical mores, including a lack of interaction between Jews and Samaritans. He told her about “living water”—not from a well of stone. She then surmised he was a prophet—a spiritual seer—as he discerned her history of having had five husbands, and not being married to her current partner. With that difficult human history of relationships lifted off and with her continuing openness toward him, Jesus shifted the conversation to the worship of God in Spirit that did not discriminate based on human origin. He made clear to her that God, being Spirit, must be worshiped in Spirit-inspired thought, and not in following uninspiring tradition. Jesus was teaching that the true source of all is God and that the way to God is Christ, the true idea of God—coming to us, seeking us, and drawing us to “living water.”
Continuing their exchange, the woman said to him, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” And Jesus replied, “I that speak unto thee am he.” How moved she must have been by this revelation! She ran off to tell her neighbors. Many in her community now knew the way to the source of all good, to God, through what Jesus taught the woman at the well. In her hurry to share this sudden discovery of Christ and her new understanding of eternal “living water,” the physical jar of water from the well had become immaterial along with historical, limiting norms, as the understanding of Christ, Truth, coursed its way into awakened thought.
Like the woman meeting the great Master, we, too, may have found ourselves thirsting for awakened thought, true healing, freedom, purpose, and peace. Through Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery of divine Science and its healing Christ, which she named Christian Science, we have been led to the source: infinite, divine Love. We have the opportunity to witness its healing presence, not just among the presumed “chosen” but among all humanity, through all generations, places, and cultures.
With no small curiosity, and untiring, unselfed love, and despite life’s trials and interference by detractors, as well as victories, Mrs. Eddy has given to all the divine laws that always fill seeking hearts with the Christ-spirit, and lead to the source of universal, spiritual good, God. Her writing of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, illuminating the spiritual meaning of the Bible, was anything but a “one and done” experience. As she says in “The Great Discovery” in Retrospection and Introspection, “. . . after my discovery of the absolute Science of Mind-healing, like all great truths, this spiritual Science developed itself to me until Science and Health was written” (p. 27).
She further wrote: “As sweet music ripples in one’s first thoughts of it like the brooklet in its meandering midst pebbles and rocks, before the mind can duly express it to the ear,—so the harmony of divine Science first broke upon my sense, before gathering experience and confidence to articulate it. Its natural manifestation is beautiful and euphonious, but its written expression increases in power and perfection under the guidance of the great Master.
“The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh universe—old to God, but new to His ‘little one.’ It became evident that the divine Mind alone must answer, and be found as the Life, or Principle, of all being; and that one must acquaint himself with God, if he would be at peace. He must be ours practically, guiding our every thought and action; . . .” (pp. 27–28).
We can learn from Mrs. Eddy’s pathway about our own as we “gather experience and confidence” in Mind’s fresh and ever-flowing, unerring direction. How do we, like the Samaritan woman, find that “living water” that ignites spiritual awakening and practical application of its goodness to the benefit of our community, as near and far as we can embrace? We may have different starting points on paths to a more deeply felt connection to God, but whatever our starting point, it will require humility and learning to become more “honest, unselfish, and pure . . . to have the least understanding of God in divine Science” (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 28). The fact is that these Christlike qualities are as tangible and familiar to six-year-olds, so-called Gen Z’s, Millennials, and Boomers, as they were to early Christians.
There’s something remarkably moving about pursuing this enriching path to the understanding of what God really is—All-love, All-power—through our own lessons in living this Science. There is nothing stale, static, or dissipating about a life lived close to God. In fact, as Mrs. Eddy assures us, “The way is narrow at first, but it expands as we walk in it” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 202). It is a sure thing that the woman at the well did not find her life “less” because of encountering Jesus. If it might feel that way to us at times, we can take a deeper look at Mrs. Eddy’s discovery, the Science of Christ, which leads us to God and the living water of which Christ Jesus spoke. This path forward is already laid out for us, ever revealing itself. In fact, it’s the only real path. But to know and feel our way forward, we must lean in to each new unfolding inspiration from the outpourings of Truth and Love.
Individual proofs of God’s power, through our spiritual growth and healing practice, shift thought away from the limits of matter toward Love and Spirit; and this will lead to a greater realness and solidity of the Christ light in our lives, resulting in encouragement, and enlightening ourselves and others. On this path of unselfed love, there is no time for dullness of thought or drifting into inaction, no decline of our body (or church body).
As we individually and collectively reach out from this ever-flowing well of Spirit, gaining the new sense of what the “spiritual Science of Mind must reveal” to us (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 28), we stir the community of which we are a part, and come to see what this source of healing and harmony is all about. We find the one infinite source to be God, all good. We can see beyond our old water jugs; and leaving them behind, we discern anew the Science of Christ. We see what we haven’t previously seen in our textbook, and the remarkable, God-lit discovery by our Leader and the Founder of the Church to which we have committed our hearts and minds.
Perhaps we can continually ask, “Is there more of burdensome matter we can cast off to gain a fuller spiritual sense of this Science of Christ and see ourselves ever closer to God . . . at one with the source?” Of course. Perhaps it is collectively in Church—the Church that proceeds from divine Principle—where together we feel the awe of being at the source, immersed in the flow of divine Love’s power to heal, unite, restore, and propel.
As the Old Testament prophet writes, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1).
Rich Evans
Member of the Christian Science Board of Directors
