You have no expiration date
“Best before ….” We see this imprint on packages when cleaning out the refrigerator. This may actually be a welcome reminder to toss the cheese or the yogurt if it’s past the date on the carton. We appreciate the nudge not to hang on to that which is out of date or past its usefulness.
Recently, I heard someone making that reference in regard to people, jokingly saying that someone was “past his expiration date.” This should make us more alert on two points: First, how quick are we to laugh or subtly take in a thought that needs to be challenged? And second, do we, almost unconsciously, accept for ourselves or our world, mental intrusions that are just plain wrong and are counterproductive to anyone’s spiritual progress?
Countless times a day, we are told in so many subtle ways that people having reached a certain numerical number are “over the hill” and “out to pasture.” These kinds of quips may not be intentionally malicious, and they may sell greeting cards, but the deeper implication is that some people are unneeded, unwanted, unnecessary—“best before” and no longer of value.
How absolutely untrue! How wrong! The student of Christian Science, being an alert thinker, has his eye on progress, and realizes that he makes a choice every minute as to how he views life and living. He knows not to simply go along with predictions of limitations or he may find himself becoming mesmerized with the idea that these limitations are likely to show up in his own life.
We are not now, nor will we ever be, outdated or unneeded.
A world that bases its reference points in the material—“How long do I have to live? When will I run out of strength or money or creativity, etc.?”—actually has two wonderful, bountiful resources to turn to in order to replace an unnecessary sense of limitation with greater expectancy of good. One is the Bible and the other is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. These two books give humanity clear, firm guidance for opposing the impositions that would steal joy from us. They give us guidance for progress based on an infinite loving God, divine Principle.
Assurances throughout Bible stories and in Science and Health confirm the fact that man, the very loved child of God, divine Love, is actually spiritual, and therefore unlimited in his provision, scope of life—forever valuable and valued, needed and necessary. Does divine Love expire? Absolutely not. Then it follows that man, as God’s expression, never expires! There will never be a moment when the very existence of man, as that beautiful expression of eternal Mind, expires or ends.
We cannot be lax in our recognition and defense of our place and permanence in Love’s plan and purpose. Let’s be unwilling to go “out to pasture.” We are not now, nor will we ever be, outdated or unneeded. As we continually recognize our oneness with divine Love, our expression of Love constantly grows and deepens. As our expression and example of honesty and integrity finds a clearer spiritual basis, we can’t help but bless the world. Will the world ever outgrow its need for clear spiritual thinking? No!
When we see a “best before” stamp, let’s toss out the salad dressing if we need to. But let it also be a reminder to be alert to what is forever true—never to be lulled by labels “stamped” on people, never to be fooled into thinking that these are true facts about God’s creation. We can use this “best before” concept as a reminder that mortal mind can’t impose wrong and unreal conditions on God’s man. Not now and not ever.
God, the only cause and creator, is our Life and the very source of our being. And divine Principle only provides progress and good for creation. We can begin now to be more aware every day to challenge anything that would bind us in a restricted sense of living. Man, as the expression of the divine Principle, Life, is essential and needed. Man is the joy-filled expression of God, and because God is eternal and is the very source of man’s true self, man is best now—and best forever.
