Article July 25, 2011 Issue

Singing and soaring beyond the Requiem

By Elaine Lang

It’s impossible to explain in words how music has enriched my life. Of course I’m not alone. You may already be nodding in agreement, recalling the variety, color, tenderness, joy, magnificence, even humor, that music has brought into your experience. 

Though I can barely remember life before music lessons, recitals, and concerts, I clearly recall the dramatic shift in my grasp of music when I became a student of Christian Science. Under the marginal heading “Ever-appearing creation” in Science and Health, this statement still thrills me: “Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all expresses Science and art throughout His creation, and the immortality of man and the universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source” (p. 507). This expansive spiritual concept lifted me out of thinking of myself as a mortal who was cultivating talents, trying to master other people’s brilliant compositions. It awakened appreciation for all that is beautiful, intricate, orderly, original, as God’s expression ever appearing in new forms, both in the arts and sciences. 

No unholy influence to the contrary can withstand clearly glimpsing God’s uninterrupted care for His children.