How I Found Christian Science March 19, 2018 Issue

Gratitude’s impact

Betty Jean O’Neal

“What is gratitude but a powerful camera obscura,” wrote Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in her book The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany. The full quotation reads, “What is gratitude but a powerful camera obscura, a thing focusing light where love, memory, and all within the human heart is present to manifest light” (p. 164). To me, this means that when God’s goodness is at the center of our attention, our thoughts are open to see more of Love’s glorious magnificence in our lives.

In my own life, for example, words are inadequate to express my gratitude for the friend who introduced me to Christian Science when I was in my teens. At that point I was feeling very discouraged because of changes in the school system in my small town. Reading the Christian Science magazines she shared opened my thought to God’s goodness, made me feel loved, and impelled me to move forward in schoolwork and sports. And it made me more loving and helpful at home.

After graduating from high school and marrying, I continued reading Christian Science literature supplied by my husband’s grandmother as well as found at a laundromat. These magazines filled my heart with gratitude and inspired me to look to God as the only source of good. I was learning that I could rely on Him for all my needs.

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