Editorial November 21, 1970 Issue

Thanking God

Carl J. Welz

One thing that made a deep impression on me during my boyhood was the service in the Christian Science church on Thanksgiving Day. I grew up to look forward to it as an annual event of importance. It still seems important to me today.

The little talks people give at this service are more than testimonies of how they have been healed. There is vibrance in their voices, sometimes tears in their eyes. Often the simplest "Thank God for all His goodness" inspires others to rise to their feet to pour out thanks. One can feel that the moving force is not merely that of a grateful human mind but of divine Love itself. This is the power that heals, and it lifts people to give public utterance to their gratitude, not just for the healing but for the truth they have found through it.

Christ Jesus must have been moved by the same power. He had work to do, and he knew what it was. And he said of it, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." ^{John 5:17;} He knew his very life—his whole existence and reason for existence—was his sonship with God. "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself," ^{v. 26;} he said.