Article March 7, 2011 Issue

Bible lessons + a life transformed

By Patricia Sharp

Haven’t we all at some time stopped to watch a child enjoy some innocent pleasure—splashing in a fountain, or perhaps gleefully chasing pigeons in a park? It speaks to something deep within us, and we identify with the spontaneity and purity of the act.

Mary Baker Eddy was so aware of the power and importance of innocence that she wrote, “Beloved children, the world has need of you,—and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives.” But she cautioned, “You need also to watch, and pray that you preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through contact with the world” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 110).

Christ Jesus often reached out to people who seemed to have lost their innocence and virtue. Think of the woman who came and bathed his feet with her tears, and was absolved of her wrongdoing after her encounter with him. He revealed her childlike thought unstained and intact, and his lessons can inform our prayers and alert us to the watchfulness we need ourselves.