Outside my window, marine blue with swirls of turquoise melds with soft yellow and a blaze of orange. As I gaze on the magnificent sunset, the luminescent colors kaleidoscope into new patterns, filling the horizon with glory. What joy that this atmospheric artistry is a precious gift available to all within view of it!
God’s grace is like that beautiful sunset, for it flows generously and impartially from divine Love, embracing all of us just because we are God’s children. It’s always present; the continuous ribbon of God’s grace encircles each of us and encompasses the whole universe with the light of Love, revealed in infinite blessings. What a glorious gift!
We might think of grace as a divine benefit that is not earned, but rather is inherent in our relationship to our Father-Mother God. The Bible says that the Lord “daily loadeth us with benefits” (Psalms 68:19).
Grace and healing go hand in hand.
If we were to unwrap these gifts, what would we find? Aren’t the gifts of grace all the qualities of God? Qualities such as Mind’s intelligence and comprehension, Spirit’s inspiration and strength, Soul’s insight and individuality, Principle’s law and order and health, Life’s vitality and immortality, Truth’s clarity and integrity, Love’s tenderness and kindness. All are given freely without measure, defining our true, spiritual being.
Because these qualities are be-stowed by God, there is a divine law that sustains them. No time or circumstance, no disease or accident, can ever take them away. As the Bible assures us, “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). So we can count on God’s gifts to be permanent and inexhaustible.
As the influence of God’s love is felt in the heart, it is natural to experience healing. Grace and healing go hand in hand. Mary Baker Eddy, who established a worldwide church based on the teachings and healing work of Christ Jesus, writes of the importance of God’s grace in healing: “Christian Scientists heal functional, organic, chronic, and acute diseases that M.D.’s have failed to heal; and, better still, they reform desperate cases of intemperance, tobacco using, and immorality. . . . All this is accomplished by the grace of God,—the effect of God understood” (Christian Science versus Pantheism, p. 10).
Another word for an effect is an outcome. A ray of light is the outcome of the sun, and it shows what the sun looks like. A ray of light does not get its brilliance or purpose from itself.
Similarly, we are the effect, the outcome, of God. Each of us is an individual manifestation of God, a witness showing what God is. So we are shining forth as the individual design of Soul, as the purposeful idea of Mind, as the eternally healthy expression of Truth, as the beautiful beam of Love expressed. Mrs. Eddy explains, “Man is not equal with his Maker; that which is formed is not cause, but effect, and has no power underived from its creator” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 46).
Since God, Soul, is omnipresent and infinite, there is no outcome from anything else—no effect from the so-called law of heredity that says we are defined by traits passed down from our ancestors. The notion that we are made up of cells programmed with intelligence that determine our assets and liabilities, including our mortality, is a false belief, not a law. The truth is that divine Soul is continuously expressing itself as our conscious individuality in beauty and immortality. How wonderful to be free of beliefs about DNA or other false laws and see that we are the effect of God alone, spiritual and perfect!
Because we are the outcome of divine Principle, there is no effect from any seeming disease or disorder; Principle is expressing itself as our individuality in eternal health, order, and harmony. Nor are we, as the outcome of God, Life, subject to effects from any other apparent negative force, such as accident, age, or toxicity. None of these can thwart our full and eternal reflection of the Divine.
Life is manifesting itself as our individuality in “one eternal round of harmonious being” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 77). And because we are the effect of God, Mind, there are no mental handicaps, such as depression or cognitive disability, to sabotage our demonstration of intelligence. Mind is expressing itself as our individuality in perspicacity, wisdom, and ingenuity.
Jesus’ declaration “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30) indicates that he saw himself as the offspring of God. He also indicated that we are all of the same Father. Following his example and embracing our own oneness with God is grace, for we see that we can do nothing of ourselves. The whole of our spiritual being—our intelligence, substance, structure, form, functions, strength, beauty, and continuity—is God’s doing. This is the grace of infinite Love expressed as our individuality. And this gift empowers us to understand and fulfill the Master’s command “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
When I was a child, my first healing on my own was a gentle revealing of God’s grace. Walking through our garden one day when it was full of blooming flowers, I was stung on my hand by a bee. The sting hurt sharply, and at first, I remembered a friend mentioning that a kitchen remedy would ease the pain and swelling of a bee sting. I went into the kitchen and was about to apply the remedy, when I heard a clear message in thought: “Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.” Even though I was quite young at the time, I was already reading Science and Health, and I recognized this as a statement from it (p. 67). It came to me like a precious gift at just the moment I needed it.
The pain had stopped and the evidence of the sting was gone.
It wasn’t that I earned that gift. Rather, it was God’s grace, His constant love, defining my consciousness with Truth. I was the effect of my Father-Mother, Love, Her child, in which there could be no hurt inflicted or received. And being that child, I happily went to play. I simply embraced that clear message of God’s healing power. After a bit, I noticed that the pain had stopped and the evidence of the sting was gone so completely that I couldn’t tell which hand had been stung. I was filled with joy!
In spiritual healing, we are not trying to make ourselves better. Rather, we are rejoicing that we are the effect of God, always the beloved and perfect child of His creating and sustaining. We are not getting rid of pain and discord, but rather seeing that God’s loving grace never allows such conditions in the first place. As God’s loved children we feel the peace of being home, in His kingdom, cherished and sustained in health and harmony.
There is no greater joy than experiencing Love’s constant care for each of us, and how Love graces each of our lives because we are the effect of God, of divine Love’s amazing grace.
