When my family vacationed in the Banff, Canada region last week, we went on many hikes through canyons, around lakes, up mountains, and along streams in the forest.
As we walked, I frequently made an effort to see Spirit expressed in what we saw along the way. And it was not hard to do, the landscape was so beautiful, awesome and even tranquil.
Along one stream, we came upon a rock that was “alive.” It was growing right before our eyes. This fascinated me, because I had never thought of rock as growing. It’s always been associated in my mind as void of life, empty of activity..more than dormant…I suppose…dead!
The concept of a rock with life intrigued me, because many times in the Christian Science practice, I’m faced with situations that appear void of life. For example, a client calls and describes a business that has no customers, no income, no hope, no future—an appearance of death. Or a married person calls and says his or her marriage is falling apart—a picture of death. Or someone has a health problem that seems to sap evidence of life from that individual’s face and body.
Anyway, finding life in a most unexpected place reminded me that we live in a universe of life. God is Life. Everything of God expresses life. Metaphysically considered, even a rock, as God’s idea, expresses life. And along that stream was bustling evidence of this truth, in one form. The wall of rock was alive, growing and increasing in size and stature as water trickled over its surface.
I realized later that all the rocks I saw, in the mountains the hills and the valleys, expressed life too. They were evidence of might, authority, beauty, grandeur, peace, and hope and promise of things even greater than of the terrestrial with their peaks stretching mightily upward into the heights of the sky.
Life is everywhere. There is no death, no inactivity, dormancy, or void in the universe of Mind we occupy. The more we look, the more we find, even in a rock.
6 comments:
Oh! Cool...
Just like hymn 176
"Living stones we, each in his place...."
I always wondered what a "living stone" was when I'd sing that verse. Now I know!
In Miscellaneous Writings Mrs Eddy discusses the idea of the spiritual nature of stone. I never thought that it could be so readily witnessed.
In the Fruitage sections of S&H people talk of seeing a freshness in everything around them at the time of their healing.
Such joys to behold through studying CS :-0)
Thank you.
MBE also speaks of not doing overmuch in translating the Bible into spiritual meaning. Can you be sure you are not confusing your readers with pantheism vs. the Science of Mind?
To above,
Oh, I don't think there is any confusion. There are life lessons to be learned everywhere we go, lessons that point to higher spiritual truths. That's the spirit of which I share these type of observations.
I certainly don't want to imply that I believe Life, or Spirit, is in a rock! Certainly not.
In a rebuke to the Pharisees who wanted the disciples silenced for their joy and enthusiasm about Christ's works, Jesus replied, "...I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." I believe this is not preaching pantheism, but teaching spiritual lessons.
Hope that helps...
Be careful, dear reader, who used the phrase the Science of Mind. that phrase is used in Religious Science, which is definitely NOT CS.
Evan, your thoughts?
Mary Baker Eddy used the phrase, "Science of Mind" 28 times in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Lots of thinkers after her used that term, and perhaps from her...
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