Article December 29, 2008 Issue

FRESH STARTS AND HEALING

BY CARYL EMRA FARKAS

HOW APT THAT THE CHRISTMAS SEASON, with its spiritual basis of goodwill and peace on earth, should be followed by an urge for fresh starts. People get motivated to set a new course toward a better way of living in the new year. It's a time of opportunity, a time when we feel that change is possible.

But without some awareness and understanding that it is God who has made us ready, that God impels and enables us to find the progress we desire, we will likely find that our best intentions have run out of steam by the end of January. In order to make the most of the impetus gained from the inspiring focus of Christmas, we need more of the Christ—the spiritual truth of man's unbreakable connection with God.

In the Preface to Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy drew attention to the connection between the desire for a better life and the recognition of the Christ. "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite," she began, "to-day is big with blessings" (p. vii). The term "blessings" implies so much more than just the things that people think they want. It suggests an expansive goodness that regenerates and transforms human experience; good that is not just temporal and passing, but rather divine and lasting. And where but in the "sustaining infinite" could such transforming goodness be found? Only Spirit can usher in the kind of significant changes that bring healing and uncover our true nature as made in the image and likeness of God.

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