Some small children in school were talking about things for which they were thankful. They mentioned food, clothing, homes, toys, pets, and the like. Then one child said eagerly, "I am grateful for life."
Grateful for life! It is well to arouse thought to vigorous and sincere gratitude for Life. To be grateful for Life is to be grateful for God, since God is Life, divine Principle, Truth, Love, the source of all real life.
Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 3): "If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and yet return thanks to God for all blessings, we are insincere and incur the sharp censure our Master pronounces on hypocrites. In such a case, the only acceptable prayer is to put the finger on the lips and remember our blessings."
Every feeling of gratitude and its expression in word or act forwards our spiritual awakening to harmony, which is the natural state of man, made in God's likeness. Through constant expression of Christlike qualities, including gratitude, the student of Christian Science proves in a great measure that divine Principle, Life, is ever present, ever operating through divine law, and establishing harmony, purity, immortality, and peace. In the measure that the thoughts and works of the student are controlled by divine Principle, he progresses in his demonstration of harmonious life.
Gratitude for Life implies acknowledgment of God's presence and power. Steadfast and humble acknowledgment of the perfection of divine Mind, or Life, wakens one to man's birthright of good and lifts thought above sin, disease, death, and all inharmony. Speaking of ingratitude evident among mankind, our Leader writes (ibid., p. 94), "Of the ten lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God thanks,—that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle which had healed him."
Only one out of ten! A small percentage to acknowledge the divine Principle which heals! Few professing Christians would choose to be numbered with the nine; yet if one lacks a demonstrable understanding of God and of His universe, including man, he does not fully acknowledge divine Principle. The healing and regenerating power of divine Love must be demonstrated.
Proof is the demand of the day! The principle of mathematics is acknowledged in the solution of the problems of numbers. Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, is acknowledged not so much in words as in proofs through the healing of sickness, limitation, grief, or other inharmonious conditions in human experience.
The grateful heart is open to receive good. Because it is affirmative, gratitude promotes harmony and operates to rule out of consciousness and exclude from experience beliefs of discouragement, self-pity, self-righteousness, self-love, and self-justification. It lifts thought to a clear apprehension of the nature of God and of His universe, including man. Gratitude is an important factor in spiritual healing as practiced in Christian Science, since gratitude opens the door of thought to receive Christ, Truth, and it is through Christ that every cure is effected.
Often the one who is striving to be grateful for Life finds a phrase of praise and thanksgiving from Scripture flooding his thought and thus enlarging his receptivity to the healing truth. Said the Psalmist (Ps. 147:1), "Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely."
At times one may seem so entangled with many false beliefs that he can scarcely unwind the snarls. Sickness, fear, limitation, or loss of loved ones may tempt him to let gratitude lag or to believe that there is nothing for which to be grateful. One so burdened with mesmerism of elements of death needs to claim vigorously, insistently, and joyously that God is All and that there is no disease, limitation, or separation and that he can always be grateful for Life.
Even if a dear one has gone beyond the present horizon of life and out of human view, the student can still be grateful for Life. Christ Jesus demonstrated eternal life and left his example for the enlightenment and encouragement of men. He proved that there is no death. We can be assured of our ability to demonstrate, in ever-progressive measure, man's at-one-ment with infinite Life and Love.
Gratitude for Life includes obedience to spiritual law. Faith in matter is disobedience. It is well to be alert and to reject the mesmerism that would bury us in the fear of material so-called laws and cause us either to honor or to obey them. Denial of matter and obedience to the commands of our Master are essential to progress.
Science and Health says (p. 4): "To keep the commandments of our Master and follow his example, is our proper debt to him and the only worthy evidence of our gratitude for all that he has done. Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to express loyal and heartfelt gratitude, since he has said: 'If ye love me, keep my commandments.'"
There is no room in Life for the unlikeness of God, since He is ever present and all-powerful; there is no room for fear, sorrow, disease, or other elements of death. The writer was promptly healed of grief and dread of separation from a loved one by persistently thanking God for the gift of life, eternal life, unchanging, unending.
We can measure our gratitude for Life by asking, How fully am I demonstrating divine Principle in overcoming sin and fear and all that is elemental in death? Words of gratitude must be confirmed by proof. Proof is the highest possible praise and thanksgiving. The burden of beliefs opposed to life harmonious may seem at times as entangling as waterweeds to the swimmer. But the experienced, well-balanced swimmer knows that when he is caught in entangling surface weeds, the remedy is to try to free himself slowly and gently, moving with the current, until the entanglements are loosened. Likewise, with calm, steadfast affirmations of the presence and power of God, divine Love, we can remove entangling beliefs of a self apart from God which would delay progress.
No matter how insistently the senses argue that sin, disease, and death are real and inevitable and that matter is supreme, we can still be grateful for Life and know that Truth always wins the victory over error. Error is negative and must end; whereas Truth is unending. Baseless arguments of the senses are silenced by Truth.
However aggressive the claims of medical science, hypnotism, and psychoanalysis in regard to the prolonging of life and harmony, the fact remains that God is Life and is supreme. His protecting and sustaining power is reiterated throughout both the Old and the New Testament. We read in Revelation (19:6), "The Lord God omnipotent reigneth," and in I Chronicles(29:11), "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all."
Sincere gratitude for Life, expressed in health, harmony, peaceful solution of problems, and purity of thought and act, operates to loose the chains of fear, disease, and limitation which seem to bind men. Each one may rouse himself and others to the acknowledgment of divine Principle, Life, as supreme and demonstrable through humble gratitude for Life.
