My mom had a beautiful old apricot tree in her backyard. The tree had lush green leaves and was perfect in every way. The only problem was that it had not put forth a single apricot in the 18 years it had been there.

In Mary Baker Eddy’s primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, we read: “The tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagating power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind which includes all. . . . 

“Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source” (p. 507). I often thought about the apricot tree when I read that passage, and it gave me hope that the tree did have the capacity to bear fruit, because as God’s spiritual idea it reflected the divine Mind, its infinite source.