IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON March 24, 2008 Issue

A weekly column in which writers discuss Bible passages that appear in the Christian Science Bible Lessons.

GOD'S WORD IS REALITY

ELAINE FOLLIS

THAT ASSERTION may seem strange in today's world. However, it was natural in Biblical times. And its use throughout this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson, titled "Reality," would seem normal, particularly since a major theme in this week's Lesson is the Word of God.

Approximately 2,000 years after Bible texts were written, we find ourselves in a media age. Words and sounds—communication in multiform—surround us: cellphones, iPods, blogs, MySpace. Now an electronic reading device with newspapers and books is available in less than two minutes. As the saying goes, "Talk is cheap" to many, simply because it is so common. Thus a word—whether in a speech or in a promise ("I give you my word")—has become quite ephemeral, unless there's a "bottom line" to make it stand up in court.

Yet this particular Bible Lesson contains one of the bestknown and most succinct statements—a bottom line if you will—about the power of God's Word: "For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa. 55:10, 11, Section V). Here we see the power of God's Word as a never-failing source of nourishment and blessing to people, animals, and the whole of creation—which, according to the book of Genesis, was created through speaking: "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (1:3).