Article April 30, 1938 Issue

Unfoldment

HELEN HIXON

How many lessons one can learn from a garden, or, if one has no garden, from a walk through a park or a wood, or from driving along a country road! Christ Jesus used the simple, everyday things around him to illustrate the great spiritual truths he gave for our guidance in working out the problem of true being.

Not long ago a student of Christian Science was reminded of Jesus' admonition, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." Near where she sat in her garden was a bed of Madonna lilies, stately, fragrant, beautiful. But they had not come to this flowering beauty overnight. Almost a year before, a friend had given her some brown, dry bulbs. She had carefully prepared a place, and planted them in her garden. All winter, under their covering of leaves and snow, there had been no sign of growth. But in the early spring tiny green shoots appeared, unfolding in a circle of vigorous leaves. Then came the young stalks, rising sturdy and strong to support the spray of lovely blossoms. Beneath the seemingly barren surface, the roots had been preparing for this full flowering, the earth, the sun, the rain, playing their part in the orderly process of final unfoldment. Each stage of growth, visible and invisible, was a necessary step toward fulfillment.

The student was grateful for this object lesson, seeing in the growth of the lilies an illustration of the spiritual unfoldment of one seeking a better understanding of his true self through the study of Christian Science. The right understanding of God and of His spiritual universe, including man, made in His likeness, is the greatest goal for which to strive. The Scriptural requirement is that we be perfect, even as our Father is perfect; and this perfection of man in God's image appears gradually, as we put into practice in our daily living our growing understanding, through improved thinking and acting.

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