In the Christian Science Bible Lesson September 24, 2012 Issue

God's light in our hearts

For the lesson titled "Unreality" from September 24 - 30, 2012

Christa Kreutz—Chesterfield, Missouri

This week’s Bible Lesson titled “Unreality” sheds light into dark corners of fear, and things that appear harmful and frightening turn out to be the absence of reality, nothing. The Lesson shows that God did not create voids or negatives, rather His creation is filled with goodness and light. And as part of God’s creation, each one of us is able to see and live that light and goodness.

In the first section is a passage from Isaiah 45, written around 539 bc , for the Israelites returning to their homeland after being exiled. These verses are a reminder that God created the world good and full of light. Some words are the same as in the first chapter of Genesis and were probably written around the same time. The word tohuw means emptiness or formlessness, and it occurs in Genesis 1:2 and twice in Isaiah 45:18, 19 (citation 4), where the King James Version translates it as “in vain.” “God himself … formed the earth … he created it not in vain [tohuw].” The New International Version translates this phrase: “he did not create it to be empty.” In other words, God’s world is not in darkness or filled with emptiness. Instead, God declares “things that are right” (verse 19). Right, the Hebrew meyshar, is a seldom used word in the Bible. It can mean upright, smooth, or even peaceful (no dangerous potholes!). This message to the exiles is that loss is not reality. As Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, explains, “… harmony is universal, and discord is unreal” (p. 414, cit. 3). God’s creation is full and abundant.

Also, in this Lesson, we learn that discords don’t have to be “fixed.” Rather, it is God’s light of Truth that dispels discords as illusions. In Exodus 4, Moses saw the illusory nature of matter when he witnessed a serpent turn into a staff and his hand return to normal when it looked diseased (see cit. 7).