Article June 16, 1997 Issue

Standing firm—regardless of outward conditions

Fabian Craig-Wilson

Each spring, my garden is home to dozens of daffodils, tulips, snowdrops, hyacinths, and bluebells. But this year, spring was very late in arriving. And yet that didn't stop the flowers from displaying their brightly colored blossoms, even amid snow flurries and ground frost. They waved bravely through wind and densest fog, dazzling and delighting us with their vibrant hues and graceful lines.

There is a lesson for us in the constancy of those flowers. They showed that the surrounding material conditions did not alter the actual individuality and perfection of the original idea. The same is true for us when outward conditions don't seem very promising.

How can we maintain our joy and continue to progress under these circumstances? By understanding who we really are. In the first chapter of John's Gospel, in the New Testament, we read: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:1, 3). And in one of Christ Jesus' most beautiful teachings, which has become known as the Sermon on the Mount, he declared, "Ye are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14). Therefore, because God made each of us, we are His radiant ideas, reflecting His pure thought.

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Standing firm—regardless of outward conditions

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