Throughout my life, I’ve always found the most satisfying answers and healings have come from my humble desire to learn more about God. So, when I started feeling unwell in the week leading up to last Christmas, I turned to God in prayer to find healing. After a few days, however, I could no longer be at work. The symptoms seemed to be worsening, and I felt the need to get more help. As Christmas was fast approaching, I longed to feel well! I had many commitments for the holiday, the most important being my work as a Christian Science nurse. I was scheduled to work through the holiday.

After I prayed quietly one morning, the thought came to call a specific Christian Science practitioner to pray with me. I had never called this individual before, and for a moment the prospect of asking someone new for help, while I was at my worst, seemed daunting. Over the last few years, however, I had been praying to know that each time we ask a fellow church member to pray with us, God is supplying both of our needs and guiding us to bless each other. Personality has no part in that holy, healing work. If listening to God, the only actual healer, we are led in His way and are willing to receive inspired truths. 

As soon as the practitioner picked up the phone, I felt a deep sense of God, of divine Love, present with me. The ideas shared in those first few moments truly touched me. 

I had been reading the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson, which is composed of passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. Since it was the week of Christmas, the Lesson included the story of the birth of Christ Jesus. I have to admit—I had been reading the story with a sense of dull familiarity. I had unconsciously accepted that the story contained no freshness or vitality, no new inspiration for me.

But the first thing the practitioner shared with me was the inspiring example of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The practitioner’s sense of awe and love for the Christmas story was so clear that I could feel it, even over the phone. It awoke me to my apathetic view of that remarkable story and its important spiritual lessons.

In particular, the practitioner shared with me this passage from Science and Health: “Jesus was the offspring of Mary’s self-conscious communion with God” (pp. 29–30). What purity of thought, humility, love, and expectancy Mary must have felt as she received the angel message, from God, that she was to give birth to Jesus—God’s Son—who fulfilled the promise of Christ’s coming on earth for all mankind. Mary’s spiritual conception of this promise, her sacred communion with God, opened the way for the human babe Jesus to come forth. 

As I studied the Christmas story in the Bible, my appreciation for Mary grew. I began to feel a gentle, yet deep and expansive love for the thought this young mother expressed. I also began to cherish my own ability to understand and demonstrate the Christ through my quiet communion with God. I, too, could express tender expectancy, calm, and joy as I witnessed the Christ presence unfolding in my life.

Each character in the Christmas story took on new meaning for me. The shepherds’ obedience and simple trust taught me to follow each idea God gave me as I prayed. The wise men’s clarity of purpose, their faithful love for the Christ child, taught me to prayerfully affirm and defend the presence and value of God in my life. The sweet humility of Joseph, as he stood by Mary amid the world’s doubt and hate for the pure idea of Christ Jesus’ birth, taught me to mentally guard my conviction of the sureness and safety of Christianly scientific healing.

Supported by the prayers of the practitioner, I continued to cherish the qualities and motives of each character’s example in the Christmas account. Humility, purity, safety, trust, hope, and obedience became precious companions to me over the Christmas season. I began to feel the nearness and ever-presence of God. These lessons became so dear to me that I was no longer preoccupied with whether or not I felt sick. As I became aware solely of the good unfolding in my thought, the question of my health faded away. Sure enough, I began feeling better each day until I awoke one morning completely well.

I returned to work, joyfully took part in family engagements, and continued to feel a deep affection and closeness with the Christ-idea throughout the holiday.

During the week, while I was quietly praying, working, or gathering with family, this short phrase from a beloved Christmas hymn came often to my thought: “The dear Christ enters in” (Phillips Brooks, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 222). This final line of the hymn that begins, “O little town of Bethlehem,” caught me by surprise. Having never given much thought to that hymn, it came to me then as a clear and direct angel message. Each time it came to thought, I would pause to truly welcome the Christ into my heart. Each time, I rejoiced that the Christ is here, and “Where meekness will receive him, still / The dear Christ enters in.” 

I am forever grateful for these Christmas lessons that I learned and for the continuing affection I feel for the Christmas story. I don’t intend to ever take it and its eternal healing message for granted again!

Shannon Nordling  
San Francisco, California, US