Editorial April 5, 1982 Issue

Why gratitude?

DeWITT JOHN

Gratitude brings healing. In its spiritual sense, gratitude is a warm and appreciative acknowledgment that good is present with us. It's important to healing because it opens the door of our consciousness to a more vivid recognition of God—His omnipresence, all-power, goodness, and love for all that He creates and includes. Gratitude opens our eyes—our spiritual discernment—to what is real. It refreshes our spiritual vision. And spiritual vision, perceiving what God is and what man is as His beloved expression, is basic to Christian healing.

An essential element of clear vision is accurate focus. Every camera buff knows this. So does the metaphysician; he knows that the rays of spiritual light must be brought into clear focus to reveal distinctly the divine image, or idea. Our gratitude helps to bring good into focus for us. It prompts us to see spiritual ideas and divine laws more clearly. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, "What is gratitude but a powerful camera obscura, a thing focusing light where love, memory, and all within the human heart is present to manifest light." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 164.}

But gratitude for what? A distinguishing feature of the Bible, seen in the context of the world's religious literature, is the stress it places on thankfulness to the one infinite, all-loving God for His goodness—with praise to Him for His mighty power and His "wonderful works to the children of men." ^{Ps. 107:8.} Small wonder, really, that the great figures of the Bible, the prophets and psalmists, offered fervent thanks and praised Him! To their highest perception He was—in contrast to the mindless carved idols of wood and stone and the mysterious tribal spirit-deities of the surrounding peoples—"the living God," "the God of gods," the "I AM," the "God of our salvation," than whom there was none else.^{See Jer. 10:10; Ps. 136:2; Ex. 3:14; Ps. 79:9.}