On Huck Finn, rivers, and spiritual reality

William E. Moody

Sometimes I feel a little like one of Mark Twain's characters. Like Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. Maybe you've felt that way, too. As though you're sitting on the bank of a river on a summer's day, eyes half-open, simply counting the pieces of driftwood as they float by or, perhaps, dreamily watching the circles disappear each time a fish slaps the water. And all the while, so much is being missed—all that's unseen just beneath the surface. There's a whole world we aren't seeing, and don't we sense that at some point we would have to leave the riverbank and actually go into the water if we should ever hope to know what that world is really like? The driftwood on its journey or the occasional leaping fish is only a hint, a glimpse, a preview, but so much more is waiting to be discovered.

We need to take part in what is actually going on—in the life-transforming currents of divine reality.

It's something like that when it comes to understanding the spiritual reality of our lives, as well. There are all kinds of glimpses or hints of God's goodness and His spiritual power coming to us. But if we're only sitting on the side of the river as it flows past, we won't have much more than those glimpses. Of course, the glimpses are important but, again, there's so much more. So much more of the real beauty and love of God's universe to discover, to understand, to experience.

We need to get beneath the surface. And we need to participate. We need to take part in what is actually going on—in the life-transforming currents of divine reality. In the New Testament, the book of James counsels that we should be "doers of the word, and not hearers only ..." (1:22). It's as we express God's goodness, beauty, and love that we know what these spiritual qualities actually mean to our lives and that we truly experience their transforming power. Our lives are blessed. We gain deeper purpose. We find healing, for a broken life or a broken body.

Understanding spiritual reality, living it, demonstrating it, isn't a dream or an abstraction. It's the day-to-day practice of the Science of Christianity. It is law-based living. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes of the ministry and life of Christ Jesus and how, through spiritual understanding, he was able to see, or realize, the true nature of God's creation. Jesus knew that the truth of man's spiritual identity was present right where the uninspired, uninformed human thought saw a distorted, limited, and materialistic perspective. And it was from this spiritually scientific, or law-based, standpoint that Jesus expressed dominion over all sorts of difficult or destructive conditions. This was also the basis on which he healed the sick. As Science and Health explains: "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause" (p. 313).

Something that helps us actually participate in the divine reality is the recognition that, as with Jesus, it's absolutely natural for each of us to express God. God, pure Spirit and real Love, creates each of us in His own likeness. That's the way of all genuine creation. If Spirit creates us, we are spiritual. If Love creates us, we can only be loving. That is our nature. It is who we are.

Once we've accepted this fundamental truth, it becomes impossible to stay stuck on the riverbank. We readily take part in living the divine reality. And the more we express those qualities of God—the grace, joy, peace, love, and goodness of divine Spirit—the more wonderful and meaningful our lives become. Every day, in every way.

William E. Moody
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