In the Christian Science Bible Lesson March 11, 2013 Issue

It's the thought that counts

For the Lesson titled "Substance" from March 11 - 17, 2013

Deanna Mummert

Recently when I was feeling quite sad about a situation, I remembered a saying on a mug at a friend’s home. It read, “Just when the caterpillar thought life was over, it turned into a butterﬂy.” I laughed, knowing that God’s thoughts couldn’t be sad, so I needed to change my thought. 

“Substance,” the title of this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson, focuses on thought; but whose thought? Each Bible story the Lesson presents teaches us to discern between our human thoughts about our experiences and God’s thoughts, which are divine substance.

In Section 2, for example, as the widow from Zarephath was preparing a last meal for her son and herself, she had fearful thoughts of lack and death. But Elijah intervened and offered her a different thought, one from God—“Fear not” (I Kings 17:13, citation 6); in other words, “Your life is not over.” Elijah asked her to use the small amount of food and oil she had left to make a meal for him and then to prepare a meal for herself and her son. She did, and her food supply was plentifully restored. Elijah knew that when we serve God, which in this case involved offering hospitality to one of His messengers, we “shall not want any good thing” (Psalms 34:10, cit. 7). Understanding spiritual substance begins with serving God.