Article January 4, 1975 Issue

How Needs Are Met

THOMAS JOSEPH McCANN

"If only I had more money!" "If only I had a new car, a better home, more friends!" "If only I had ...!" Mortal living seems to be an endless procession of wants. There is nothing wrong in the desire for better human conditions. But human desire outlines what it thinks it wants, and many times this prevents the recognition of what is really needed. As a consequence, what we think we want, we may not need; while what we certainly need, we may just as definitely think we don't want.

Beliefs of inadequacy, incompetence, and limitation would have us accept as real suggestions of depletion, reversal, or insufficiency. Christian Science shows us that these suggestions are no part of our true being. We learn that true being is the reflection of God, the only Being, the only good. God, divine Mind, possesses all, and all that is real is spiritual and good.

The accounts in the Bible of how Christ Jesus fed a crowd of five thousand people in one instance and four thousand in another show the difference between the disciples' thinking in terms of want and the Master's knowing how a need is met. The crowds had followed him to a lonely place to hear him preach, and it was late in the day. When the Master asked the disciples how much food was on hand, they said there were only a few loaves and fishes, and suggested that he send the people away, for it would be impossible to feed such a crowd. But Jesus prayed and gave thanks. The disciples distributed the food, and there was enough for all, with several basketfuls left over.^{See Matt. 14:15–21, 15:32–38;}

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