Article July 30, 1966 Issue

Bud, Blossom, and Almond

EVELYN M. PINNELL

There are men and women today who appear to have made a success of their lives, yet who cherish a secret sense of failure. Deep in their hearts they are aware that their lives are like a fruit tree that, though outwardly healthy and strong, bears leaves but no fruit.

If we believe that the time has now gone by for our experience not only to blossom but also to come to fruition, the teachings of Christian Science have a message abounding in hope for us. Centuries ago the prophet Joel comforted the Israelites with the promise, "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten"; and he prefaced it by saying, "The floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil,"^{Joel 2:24, 25;} indicating that with restoration must come again the joys of abundant harvest.

Mrs. Eddy tells us: "The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak, the ferocious beast,—like the discords of disease, sin, and death,—are unnatural. They are the falsities of sense, the changing deflections of mortal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind."^{Science and Health, p. 78;} In the kingdom of heaven, the state of consciousness where "the eternal realities of Mind" unfold, there can be no blighted bud nor barren tree.