Blanket of belief

One day before last Christmas I was wrapping some presents for the family in my wife’s sewing room. I heard intruding footsteps coming down the hallway, so in desperation to protect the anonymity of my yet unwrapped gifts I threw a large blanket over the items. My son enters the room, asks me a question, looks around, sees nothing significant to his eyes and harmlessly leaves. Whew! No secrets disclosed.

Mortal mind often acts in the same way, throwing mental blankets over spiritual realities to keep us from seeing the spiritual truth. Has this ever happened to you?

In this week’s Bible Lesson, we have the story of Eutychus falling from a high window ledge. Paul is preaching into the wee hours of the night, and Eutychus loses interest, nods off, falls asleep and tumbles from the third loft in the room Paul’s group occupies. Hitting the ground with an assumed thud, he is pronounced dead by those around him.

Paul, however, is not so quick to jump to unfortunate conclusions. He goes over to the dead body, embraces it and declares amazingly to the group, “Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.” Eutychus comes back to life and all is well.

What did Paul see that no one else saw?

“His life is in him!” He proclaimed.

Paul saw Life, where everyone else saw death. The others' belief that Eutychus had to suffer from his fall, and in this case the penalty of death, was so strong and pronounced in their thought that they quickly concluded Eutychus was dead, and that is exactly what they saw and experienced.

Paul, however, knew Life was in God, in Spirit. “His life is in him,” could be reworded “His life is in Him (in God),” safe and sound out of the reach of matter.

Paul knew Eutychus’ life had not fallen to the ground and become injured. Eutychus’ life was God, and God is forever alive. Eutychus’ life AS God, was still alive and well.

Can we all learn to be like Paul and see the spiritual reality in face of the material error? I ask.

Paul’s understanding of spiritual truth yanked away the blanket of belief mortal mind had cast on the group’s thought and revealed to them the truth that right where they saw a dead body there was an alive Eutychus. And the results confirmed his conviction.

How often does mortal mind cast a blanket of false belief over a spiritual reality in our experience?

For example, have you ever been upset by someone who is hard to get along with? Perhaps the amenable and good-nature of that person has been covered by a belief of stubbornness or intransigence. It's an opportunity to strip that covering away in thought and see God’s agreeable child behind it.

Have you ever seen so much lack and debt you gave up hope of solvency? Perhaps its time to strip away the imposter blanket of belief called limited supply and inadequate ability. Behind the picture of poverty is a wealth of riches waiting to be utilized.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a sickness? Again, it’s a blanket of mental error trying to hide the healthy you from being seen and felt.

Beliefs can be as opaque in thought to a correct mental view as a thick black blanket thrown over an object to the human eye.

So, when situations look dreary and hopeless, let’s not be so quick to jump to despairing conclusions. God is good, and God is all. We live right smack dab in the middle of God’s unfathomable goodness and greatness. If we aren’t seeing it, it’s not because it isn’t there. It’s time to jerk the blanket of false belief off of the spiritual reality and see the living truth thriving right in front of our eyes.

“His life is in him.” Your health is in you. Your wealth is deposited. Your generous nature is intact…. What more can you add?