WHO DOESN'T YEARN for new and greater vitality in life? That's just what I gained from this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Life"—new thoughts about ways to expand my concept and my experience of the divine Life, right now.

The word new is frequently used in this lesson, starting out with the Golden Text (Ps. 144:9), "I will sing a new song unto thee, O God." Section I follows this lead: "And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God" (Ps. 40:3, citation 2). Citation 3 shows that by keeping this wonderful sense of newness in our life, we defeat the supposition that we are mortal: "The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 18:1, 31). Spiritual newness, then, is the antidote to dullness, again, boredom, insipidness, and even thoughts of dying. The connection of newness and singing in these citations also showed me how to feel and express the fact that we live in God's new day, always full of promise and harmony.

The Old Testament character Enoch, for example, must have lived in God's new day. He did not lie down and die in order to see God, but rather "walked with God" into Life's continuing promise of new life-experience (see Gen. 5:21-24, Sect. III, cit. 8). Enoch's example reminds me that we do not die our way into heaven; rather, we live our way there. More and more life is divine Life's promise to each of us. As Mary Baker Eddy put it: "We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself: Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? Am I demonstrating the healing power of Truth and Love? If so, then the way will grow brighter 'unto the perfect day'" (Science and Health, p. 496, Sect. III, cit. 13). I found this passage such a compelling description of how Enoch made his "walk" into a more perfect day.

Science and Health brings these thoughts all together for me in Section I: "As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to 'where the young child was,'—even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes. Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkeness of error" (p. 191, cit. 4). I like the image of how my sense of newness can reveal that place "where the young child was" in me. Also, how childlikeness opens our understanding to "the spiritual sense of being," and to what Life really includes.

"Vigor, freshness, and promise" are all very much a part of perpetual newness, as the Lesson's second section points out. The corresponding result is that "each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness" (p. 246, cit. 9). During a severe drought the prophet Elijah found himself in great need of food and Life's promise. Then, typically voracious ravens were made to give up their food to take care of Elijah in the Valley of Achor in the wilderness (I Kings 17:1-16, Sect. IV, cit. 11).

Could even the birds of the air be made to change their selfish habits to conform to God's life-sustaining command? I'd like to think, "Yes!" for this account has the profound purpose of demonstrating the concept that eternal Life is not an abstract and remote teaching but the truth applied to our everyday lives.

The Bible is loaded with just such examples of men and women being fed in the wilderness and in times of great need, in what often appear as impossible circumstances. They assure us that the power of divine Life reaches right into the human experience and cares for the most basic of our needs. They present answers to such current issues as recession, depression, drought, famine, disease, and other crises of limitation that can be overcome as people discern the continuity of God's great care for creation. Yes, even ravens conform to the demand of Life that we be sustained and renewed in all our hours of need.

Elijah, having seen the purpose and power of life in God, went on to bring about many remarkable healings. For me, this Lesson connects Elijah's experience with that of Jesus. In Matthew's account, Jesus gets up from a meal and goes to revive a young girl. He raises her far above a whole community's belief that she has died (Matt. 9:10-12, 16-19, 23-26, Sect. V, cit. 14). Science and Health says of Jesus, "He understood man, whose Life is God, to be immortal, and knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and the other to be made indestructible" (p. 369, cit. 24). And that sums up what I got out of this week's Bible Lesson—seeing more clearly that my life, made new every day by the one Life, is indestructible! css