The greatest gift of all

On this eve before Christmas, I’m happy to share a post from my friend and colleague, John Clague.  John is the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Oregon.  Thanks for your thoughts John, and warm wishes to everyone for this Christmas!

This season has many meanings for people: gifts, cheer, a tree, gatherings, promises, hope, and worship.  For some it symbolizes sadness, despair, loss, and unfulfilled desires. For me, this season is a reminder of the greatest gift of all: God’s goodness.  This goodness is natural, infinite, always present, and negates anything that is unlike it.  This is a gift given to everyone.

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, found this goodness of God in her deepest moment of need, when she was about to die, and it was so powerful that it restored her to health.  I have found this goodness many times in my life when I needed it.  At times I have found it by simply opening my thought to recognize that it is all around me.

Examples of God’s goodness are found throughout the Bible, along with the promise that this goodness will be with us forever.  In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy explains how this goodness can be brought to bear on every human circumstance and condition which appears to be less than good.

Christ Jesus, born of a human virgin, crucified, and risen from the dead taught everything that needs to be known about God and goodness.  More and more I realize he lived the Christ, the spiritual essence of God, to the fullest degree. He was the holiest man on earth because he understood, demonstrated, and was filled with the spirit of God, the Christ.

This season I celebrate the opportunity every day of the year to bring the Christ into my life, for renewal, to receive God’s gift of goodness.  Mary Baker Eddy shares in her writings:

“Again loved Christmas is here, full of divine benedictions and crowned with the dearest memories in human history — the earthly advent and nativity of our Lord and Master. At this happy season the veil of time springs aside at the touch of Love. We count our blessings and see whence they came and whither they tend.” [Miscellany, page 256: 17-22]

To view a new video on the nativity story told in the language of today’s social media, check out a Social Media Christmas.