We had leased a cottage in the foothills, and as we drove in we encountered sunbathed loveliness: flowers in bloom, towering evergreens, a glistening brook with its charming footbridge, and beyond, the mountain slopes. But none of this was visible from inside the house. The window shutters were all closed. In minutes we had flung them wide and once again were experiencing the glories of that day.

This incident has been a useful lesson in realizing what's required if we would share in the ever-present spiritual blessings of divine Love. Christian Science shows us how to unlatch mental shutters of fear, superstition, and other limiting thought-patterns. These would hide from our view the genuine good emanating from our divine Father-Mother. As some have phrased it, we need to let God into our lives. Actually, though, we can't really keep God out. God is our Life. The Psalmist says, "The Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." ^{Ps. 42:8.}

God is infinite Life, which knows neither mortality nor disease. Father and Mother of our being, God provides unfailing energy, health, and strength, all entirely independent of matter and flesh, for God is divine Spirit. As Soul, His every arrangement is harmony-accented. And God is eternal Love, the Mother who never has a fear for Herself or Her children, since within the allness of Love only good exists or can be known.

But how can we deal with the fears and hang-ups that would shut out the peace God's love is extending? We need to enlarge our sense of God and know that He is perfect Mind, conscious only of His excellent ideas. We need also to admit that in our true being we embody His ideas and qualities. These include dominion, integrity, and spiritual intuition and their activity.

Divine Mind doesn't entertain human opinions, only spiritual facts. One such fact is that Spirit is the very substance of the real universe and man. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells us: "Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit." ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 468.}

And so, you and I are, in truth, ideas of God, secure in perfect Mind. Divine Mind isn't subject to evil beliefs, and as Mind's ideas we are free from hate, worry, despair, confusion, indecision, or frustration. We are under Mind's harmonious control, not dominated by aggressive, mesmeric, or hypnotic mental suggestion. God's gift of dominion is ours to exercise. He is the only real Mind, and man as individual spiritual consciousness reflects Mind's tranquillity and power. These truths are available and applicable to all.

When window shutters or shades are opened, the light pours in for all who are in the room. We should think of this when we're concerned about the problems of others. When tempted to feel we should personally control people in our family or in our churches, or perhaps in our communities, we need the kind of faith that trusts the goodness pouring forth from God to find a path, in its own superior way, to the hearts of others. True, the one who opens the window shutters can act as an instrument for good. But he or she isn't, after all, the origin of the light. Similarly, the source of what's needed for solving family or church or world perplexities is never a given person. It's always the divine Mind, sending forth its Christ-power—the spiritual intelligence and guiding ideals that operate healingly in human thought.

Our churches, for instance, can be places where the talents of others and their as-yet-unblossomed desire to serve can be encouraged, once we acknowledge God's control. Where this kind of thinking is prevalent, one sees a thrilling development of individual abilities that never could have occurred had personal domination and monopolizing been permitted in a church. When we really want to see others growing in spiritual abilities, including healing skills, we'll see it happening, because pure desire has its answer straight from God.

On that shining day when my husband and I opened the shutters, nature's loveliness didn't all come from just one tree or one mountain peak. In its way, each facet contributed to the scene. Let's remember to encourage each child in the family, each member of the church, each associate in a community project, to contribute a worthy outlook. Divine intelligence impels such an outlook wherever there is receptive, morally prepared individual consciousness.

Who better than Christ Jesus knew how to remove limiting concepts that would deprive individuals of their share in Spirit's blessings! By his every word and act Jesus proved that the entireness of God's harmony is at hand, awaiting only our mental acceptance. He emphasized the universal availability of God's blessings. Once, after praying for his disciples, he broadened the scope of his prayer. He said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." ^{John 17:20, 21.}