Seeing things in a new light
Passages we’ve often read can become so familiar that we completely miss an opportunity to understand them better.
Almost every morning, I take a long walk with my sweet dog on our road, which winds through peaceful countryside. At one bend in the road, if you look carefully, you can see an old wooden swing hanging from a wooden frame tucked into a little grove of trees. The first time I caught a glimpse of it, I was delighted to imagine sitting there with a book, gently rocking as I read, with my dog curled up close by. I remembered sitting on swings like this as a child and how much I loved the peaceful times spent there.
After that initial glimpse, I looked for that swing every day when we walked. Sometimes, I would have to look very hard in order to see it, because the light was not quite right to make it visible in the dense grove of trees. And some days, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see it at all. However, when the light was just right and shining on the wooden posts supporting the swing, I could see it clearly and would even catch different angles and different views of it, which always brought me joy.
This got me thinking about the words we read in the Bible or in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and other writings by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. Passages can sometimes become so familiar that we almost don’t even notice them, and we completely miss an opportunity to understand them better—to look deeply and find the truths and inspirations that are tucked away in those passages. Sometimes just a glimpse of them is all that’s needed to bring us peace and joy, even healing. Other times, we see them in the full radiance of divine Truth, the light of Christ, which brings understanding and often gives us a completely new view of something we thought we already knew everything about!
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