Article February 6, 1954 Issue

WHAT HAVE WE?

YVONNE R. KARG

The Science by which we individually demonstrate health is the same Science that demonstrates supply. As Christian Scientists we know that since the source of supply is God, it is an abundant supply, adequate for all the demands made upon it. If we permit ourselves to look upon money, property, or salary as our supply, we are likely to think of it as the amount already in our possession or in immediate prospect, and thus place upon it the limitation of measurement. It is the attitude of viewing what is at hand as inadequate that would keep us ever in a state of unsatisfied pursuit.

When the perception of the disciples seemed inadequate to grasp the fullness of God's provision. Jesus asked them (Mark 8:17—20): "Have ye your heart yet hardened? ... Do ye not remember? When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?" And when they replied, "Twelve," he asked, "And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?" Their answer was, "Seven." Then he asked, "How is it that ye do not understand?" According to this account, Jesus seems to have been wondering how they could possibly doubt when they had so lately had two examples of Love meeting the human need, not with a mere sufficiency, but with a surplus that exceeded the amount brought to him for his blessing in the first place.

Jesus did not belittle the supply at hand, nor did he send away the throng that had been with him for three days seeking healing and hearing his message. He only said (Mark 6:38), "How many loaves have ye?" And then with perfect assurance he blessed them, and the multitude was fed. If his thought had been fixed on five loaves and two fishes, like that of the disciples, he could not have realized the adequacy of what the Father had placed in his hands. To him the supply at hand must have been the evidence of infinite supply, and because he appreciated it as such the blessing was increased so as to feed the multitude.

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