Sitting atop Mars Hill, overlooking modern-day Athens in the shadow of the majestic Acropolis, I watched as the faint light of dawn began to appear over the distant horizon. My traveling companions and I discussed what it must have been like when Paul was here, so many centuries ago, addressing the Athenians.
As we talked, a man came up and sat nearby on a rock. I suddenly felt his presence and paused. He said, “Go on, I heard you discussing Paul and wanted to listen.” We ended up sharing ideas on the teachings of Christ, and my companions and I felt we were having our own Paul-like mountaintop experience—sitting on Mars Hill, talking about how the light of Christ had transformed our lives—just as the first beams of day illuminated the landscape.
The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, asks an important question about the dawning of Christ in consciousness: “Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he beholds the light which heralds Christ’s eternal dawn and describes its effulgence?” (p. 95). We may have an occasional experience like this, where some spiritual concept that’s engaging our thinking attracts others, like my friends and I had. But how often do we share inspiration and it falls flat?
