Article December 15, 1956 Issue

"LIKE SNOWFLAKES"

[Original article in French]

MARCELLE DELVAUX

When she woke one winter morning, a student of Christian Science noticed that everything outside her home seemed to have changed. The whole landscape was fleecy white. During the night snow had been falling fast, and everything was transformed. As she looked along the avenue on which she lived, it seemed to her that the houses were asking her: "Which house am I? Do you recognize me in my new attire?" Then noticing a square piece of ground which was bare of snow, she was astonished and momentarily perplexed. Her eyes then caught sight of the electric power transformer, and she understood. For at that point, the earth immediately surrounding it being warm, the snow had not clung, and the flakes had evaporated when they touched the ground.

During the day the student took up '"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy and read the following passage (p. 250): "Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes, and drift to the ground." It was a joy to her to read these lines, for she knew the care with which Mrs. Eddy chose her words. Here our revered Leader compares mortal thoughts to snowflakes. If there is anything fleeting and insubstantial, it certainly is a snowflake. Remembering what she had seen that morning, the student thought: "When the ground is hard, cold, and dry, the snowflakes accumulate and seem to be of some consequence for a while. But if the ground is warm, the snowflakes melt when they touch it and leave no trace."

According to Christian Science, the consciousness that is unloving and ignorant of Truth retains mortal thoughts, which seem to be of some consequence for a while. If consciousness is well warmed by Love and the understanding of Truth, mortal thoughts melt away.

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