If this issue of the Sentinel marks your first encounter with Christian Science, then you’ve begun a wonderful spiritual journey that can lead to a transformative and uplifting understanding of yourself and humanity. The discovery of Christian Science, the revelation that each one of us is capable, right now, of knowing, feeling, and demonstrating our oneness with our Father-Mother God, divine Love, brings with it joy and bliss. Just as a young child explores and discovers the world for the first time with wonder and delight, so with the same measure of adventure everyone can take in the newly discovered world of Spirit.

Mary Baker Eddy put it this way: “Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 323–324).

Absolute consecration is much more than a merely intellectual attempt to understand the letter.

Such childlike love for Christian Science is common among those first acquainting themselves with its ideas. But what about longtime students of this Science? For many, the childlike enthusiasm for daily study and practice of this Science has never waned. For some, it can become all too easy to forget the importance of the genuine childlikeness needed to progressively explore and express these life-transforming ideas—and so lose the innocent awe and wonder they first felt toward God. Teachings may have become rehearsed or viewed more as intellectual theories than ideas that need to be lived daily.

However, Christian Science can never really become rehearsed or trite. No matter how long you may have been a Christian Scientist, wonderfully fresh, inspiring, and healing ideas will always be present to be discovered. Even the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, described herself in her later years as still “a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of Christ.” She also wrote that “… to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire” (Science and Health, pp. ix, 3).

Absolute consecration is very sacred. It is much more than a merely intellectual attempt to understand the letter of Christian Science—to be a more sophisticated metaphysician. Perhaps it’s a childlike willingness to put into practice—in the little and the big things that come into our lives—what we already understand of this Science, while we reach out to learn more. This childlike approach can lead to powerful breakthroughs and even unexpected healings.

We might ask ourselves: Do we continue to adopt a childlike love of God? Do we daily read the Bible with the expectant love of a child to discover more of the spiritual sense of its message that Christian Science unlocks for us? Are we increasingly loving our neighbor as ourselves and really looking for opportunities to do so? Honestly answering such questions with our whole heart can lead us to “renew our vows” so to speak, and fall in love with Christian Science all over again.