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Years before the founder of this magazine was the internationally known author Mary Baker Eddy, she was known to her friends and acquaintances as Mary Glover. One day, she received the following telegram: “Mrs.

Dear Reader, Some years ago, an ad posted all over London promoted a book about a celebrity as “the ultimate biography. ” I was reading a biography of Mary Baker Eddy at the time, and was struck with how she leaned on God and defied all the odds to restore what she referred to as “primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing” ( Church Manual, p.

“Mrs. Dunton is prejudiced” was written on the tiny scrap of paper scrunched in the bottom of the mailbox I kept on my desk as a third-grade teacher.

The long-running and immensely popular British television series Call the Midwife is based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, a young Englishwoman who left her comfortable home to work in London’s East End as a midwife. Each episode starts out as the original book did with the question, “Why did I ever start this? I must have been mad! There were dozens of other things I could have been.

Recently, when diving deeper into the Bible story of Christ Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (see John 11 ), I found myself valuing important details that I had overlooked before, one being that Jesus’ friendship toward Lazarus was different than we might expect of friendships today. Jesus’ love for Lazarus included seeing his spiritual selfhood as permanent, intact, and as perfect as God, the creator of that selfhood.

Thoughts we hold shape our lives. Spiritual ideas, when grappled with and understood, are even more transformative, as the biblical patriarch Jacob demonstrated when he wrestled with an angel, or message from God.

The inspired, or spiritual, message of the Bible—expressing the Word of God, good—is full of wisdom that inspires, instructs, and changes one’s life for the better. For instance, recently I came across a passage in the Old Testament that was very familiar to me—familiar, yes, but nonetheless loaded with fresh insight.

“Nooo, not one more thing. ” That’s the thought I had after the latch on my trunk appeared to be stuck.

A friend once told me that every winter she takes out a large favorite jigsaw puzzle that covers much of her dining room table when finished. “Don’t you get bored doing the same puzzle over and over?” I asked.

God’s goodness can never be destroyed. We are all part of His goodness.