Article May 3, 1924 Issue

The Good Gift of Opportunity

ENID L. COLLINS

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning," we read in the epistle of James. One of these good gifts is the possession of the present moment, hour, and day in which to work out our salvation, to be saved from any mistake or belief of sickness, sin, or sorrow. It is never too soon, never too late, nor have we transgressed God's law too often, to be allowed another opportunity for reformation. God's compassion is infinite, and He continually offers us the present in which to experience relief from whatever evil may seem to have been giving us trouble.

What a lightening of the eyes, what a gladdening of the heart there would be, if every one who is distressed should know of this great gift, which is immediately and continually available to each one of us! Christ Jesus in his wisdom and love would not have commanded his followers to heal the sick, reform the sinner, love their neighbor, raise the dead, and rejoice in doing so, if it had not been possible to obey him. There is nothing vague about these commands either. He did not say to heal the sick if the disease had not progressed too far; to save the sinner if he were not too degraded; to love our neighbor if he were not too unlovable; to raise the dead if he were not departed too long; or to rejoice if we had not too much to be unhappy about. It makes no difference what the symptoms or evidences are, the fact remains that God's man, God's universe, is perfect; and what we need to do, in order to see this perfection, is individually to understand and prove the nothingness of the belief that anything is wrong with any of God's creation. In the final analysis there is no other creation to consider, since "all things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."

It is not the other person's malpractice, not our neighbor's wrong attitude, not any material thing or circumstance that we have to change, but our own wrong thought about these things. This fact greatly simplifies our healing work, because we do not in reality have to change matter. The only thing necessary is for each one quietly to correct in his own thinking whatever is unlike good. Moreover, if all were doing this faithfully, all would experience universal heaven and harmony now.

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