Editorial December 8, 1986 Issue

The warmth of the healing Christ

Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

When I was in college I occasionally visited with a family in the nearby town. This family's natural trust in goodness seemed a kind of anchor to me in the midst of some turbulent doubts I was going through. We didn't talk religion. I just found it clarifying and encouraging once in a while to be with them and to see their love for each other.

You've probably felt something similar at some point—the strong anchoring of a friend, or perhaps a staunch Christian Science practitioner. When a person has honesty and is attempting to live as closely with good as possible, it serves as a powerful affirmation and practical help to others.

Someone embodying the spirit of goodness we so much cherish is a living proof that the goodness we yearn for is real. And when someone is, in addition, throwing his or her whole weight into the scale for the reality and value of good and the worthlessness—in fact, the unreality—of evil, as is a Christian Science practitioner, we feel more. We're helped to be more conscious of the good we ourselves truly know and also to be more willing to trust it.

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