Think Unto Others

While thinking about our new President and the negative thoughts he has been receiving, a problem with whoever that person may be, no doubt, Jesus' "Do unto others" came forcefully to thought.  The following is a poem on this subject:


                                                          Think Unto Others


                                                           (Matthew 7:12)




Oh what disservice we do,
When ignoring Jesus' rule for living,
We indulge in thoughts of others
We ourselves do not like receiving.


For God's creation, perfect and complete
Includes us all, includes us every one,
All lovable, worthy of our love,
As shown to us in His beloved Son.


To pass on by our Master's law
For happy, healthy living
Is -- not to put too fine a point on it --
Leaving not done what I must be doing.


But, as God has made His man,
I can think of everyone today.
This is, to the good our Father has for us,
A sure, achievable, way.

Sunrise

Oh the beauty our Father spreads before us.


Peace and rose and gold,


And cream and baby blue,


And rimmed with fire,


Clouds of slate.


A most spectacular sky just now.


I know I'm late,


But how can I be expected to drive,


And ooh and ahh?


I pull over and clasp my hands


In a child's wonder.

Loving God's Son

Another reason to love Jesus


(If we need one)


Is found in John 16:27


Where our Master says:


"For the Father himself loveth you,
because you have loved me,
and have believed that I came
       out from God."




Love for God's Holy Child


Will do many things for us,


            among them:


        Please His Father and ours;


        Keep us right with God;


        And enable us to feel His loving presence.
        

A Present Help

        The Bible states, "What nation is there so great who hath God as nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?" (Deut. 4:7)  While reading this earlier today, couldn't help saying "Amen" and feeling so thankful for the teachings of Christian Science which make God's help available to us continuously.


        Another of the many passages throughout the Bible that reveal God as the tender, watchful guardian of all is "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."  (Ps. 46:1)  And Christ Jesus, who was ever conscious of God's unfailing care for His children, said "He that sent me is with me:  the Father hath not left me alone."  (John 8:29)  God's constant love and support are still at hand for all who yearn for heavenly help.


        Many who have felt alone and afraid before problems of lack, fear, sin, or sickness have found solace, support, and healing through the study of Christian Science.  Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (page 331):  Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.  As the apostle expressed it in words which he quoted with approbation from a classic poet:  'For we are also His offspring.'"


        Christian Science shows that since man is God's offspring, His image and likeness, the Bible reveals, man is spiritual and perfect, continuously reflecting the Father's love.  This spiritual identity, the true selfhood of us all, is not helpless before the mortal claims of fear, lack, sorrow, and discord.  These erroneous beliefs, which seem so real to the unenlightened thought, stem from ignorance of man inseparable relationship to God, divine Love, and are corrected by spiritual understanding.


        Mortal suffering is an illusion of the physical senses, a lie about God's perfect creation.  It is like the bad dream one may have at night--frightening to him, yet not real, not really going on at all.  And what relief one feels when  he wakes and sees that there is nothing to fear.


        When, through spiritual understanding, one arouse himself from the mortal dream of life in matter to the reality of the truth of spiritual being, he experiences the freedom that comes only from a knowledge of spiritual reality.


        Anyone can be free now, the moment he awakes to Truth, and can know the comfort and assurance of man's God-bestowed peace, joy, and wholeness through realizing that man is ever with his loving, heavenly Father.

Free from Heredity and Environment

To longing deep and universal
"If I could just be free!" --
Is this fact divine so comforting
That all can come to see:
Man is and ever has been in God --
His perfect child, eternally.
For we are not the slaves of
Influences prenatal, hereditary, or
Environmental,
Not helpless before circumstances,
Never under carnal mind's curse
For a year, a day, an hour.
These are truths Christ Jesus knew,
And they gave him wondrous power.
This knowledge Christian Science imparts --
Saving knowledge so glorious --
That we're not hemmed in by fleshly starts,
Or happenings in this mortal dream,
But are right now the way He made us.
Fortunate world that there is revealed
Crucial things that all can claim and see,
(Things God has always known about us)
That now and through all eternity
We are His loved child, His very own --
Immensely blessed and whole and free.

The Lovely Light of Christmas

        Light at this special time of year is seen in so many lovely ways.  Of course, crowning them all is Jesus -- Light's advent in the flesh (as my husband's previous poem has it.) 


        But I can't help noticing the way God's love expressed in everyday life gives a special glow to things. When someone who is not expecting a gift receives one, face all lit up with joy. When a neighbor who has been cross brings a home-baked treat to our door, hoping we'll be pleased, seeking to make amends and express Jesus' peace and good will to all.  A child's sparkling eyes when they see the dazzling light display at our local library. Our mail carrier who is doing an extra route so a fellow worker can go home for Christmas, the look on  his face when hearing, "God bless you for your good deed."


        May that special light that is seen during Christmas, the light of God's love for the whole world, illumine all we do this coming year. 

God's Greatest Gift

                                                         




                                                         John Robert Howell












The muezzin of the infinite and light-emblazoned firmament
Marked the nightly vigils' silent and meditative hours
Of those wakeful, watchful sheperds, Scientic avatars,
Who pondered not dusty constellations of earth's deceptions,
But the higher lessons witnessed in God's refulgence,
Thus to behold the glow of that eldritch eastern star,
Herald of Jesus' nativity, Light's advent in the flesh.
That event was once and not to  be repeated,
Yet for those who receptive hearts wander wearily
Among the darkly lighted trails and travails of mortality
The promise of that holy dawn blesses all eternally.