HOST: At this season of the year, Thanksgiving is being celebrated in the United States. Various other countries set aside different times for their thanksgiving. But some people wonder: Does thanksgiving have any real meaning today?

INTERVIEWER: Some people today take the view that modern man is getting along pretty well by his own efforts. They feel he can take care of his own needs, and so why should he express thanks to God? Others, of course, challenge such a view. For instance, Dr. Charles Malik, former Ambassador for Lebanon to the United Nations, had this to say in an essay prepared for the Columbia University Bicentennial Conference: "To whom do we owe our being, our knowledge, our freedom, and the many things we use? For obviously we owe them to another since we did not make them ourselves." [The Unity of Knowledge, Doubleday and Company, Inc., New York. Copyright, 1955, Trustees of Columbia University.]

I'd like to ask you first two questions: Why should we be grateful to God? And for what?

SPEAKER: We should be grateful to God because the real substance of everything good and worthwhile is spiritual and comes from God. The most precious possessions, great fortunes can't buy; their origin is in God. All existence, intelligence, joy, freedom, true worth, happiness, and satisfaction are derived from God.

The Bible reveals God as the primal and eternal source and Giver of all good. For instance, in I Timothy we read, "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (6:17). The teachings of Christ Jesus indicate the importance of placing the highest value on spiritual things. In his Sermon on the Mount he said: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yetfor your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? ... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6: 25, 33). And in II Corinthians, Paul pointed to the enduring quality of spiritual gifts when he said (4:18), "For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

INTERVIEWER: But aren't these spiritual riches beyond the limits of human experience?

SPEAKER: No, indeed. They're extremely practical and applicable to every phase of human experience. Christian Science shows that everything good we possess hints at an underlying spiritual source. The more we understand God, man's divine source, the more we recognize what really belongs to spiritual man, God's likeness.

In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, is this statement: "If men understood their real spiritual source to be all blessedness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual and be at peace" (p. 329).

Man expresses the lasting substance of Spirit, and so in reality man is never separated from the real substance of all he needs.

INTERVIEWER: Would you explain what you mean by real substance?

SPEAKER: Yes, one example would be the true sense of home, which is not merely a house but the spiritual or divine qualities of love and joy, of purity and intelligence. These are what make a house a home. Another example would be the true idea of business, which is not merely a moneymaking enterprise or a prestige-giving establishment. It is the expression of the divine qualities of intelligence and right activity. This is true business.

INTERVIEWER: Well, granted many of the things you say may be true; but from a practical standpoint just how do we go about bringing more substance, more good into our daily lives and experience?

SPEAKER: The acknowledgment of God as the source of all good all the time, every day, not only one day in the year, enlarges our concept of true substance available to man. It gives us a sense of its immanence, its presence, its ever-availablity. By seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we can never lose the real substance of life and health and home and friendship—of everything good. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy says (p. 516), "The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the falsetestimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere."

So we see that Thanksgiving, far from being just a day at home with the family or of football games or of a big dinner, is a day to reacquaint ourselves with these facts of God's ever-present goodness. Many have found that the gratitude to God which a recognition of His nature brings has brought healing and joy and blessing into their lives.

INTERVIEWER: I'm sure you must have learned of many real-life experiences in this connection.

SPEAKER: Yes. There's a woman in New York, I know of, whose gratitude to God has brought many changes into her experience. This woman lived with her husband and two sons in a very nice apartment, but they wanted to buy a house. They looked for a long time but didn't find just what they wanted. Then about this time a terribly discordant situation in their apartment building developed. There was a change of superintendents, and the new man was unsatisfactory in every way.

Things got to the point where all she wanted was to get out as quickly as possible. But then she realized where her thinking had gone astray. She and her husband were Christian Scientists, and she realized that she needed to be grateful for what she already had right where she was. Her husband reminded her of the statement in Science and Health (p. 3): "Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more."

The evidence around her didn't leave very much to be grateful for, but she recalled the statement attributed to Mrs. Eddy that "home is not a place. It is a power" (Mary Baker Eddy: Her Mission and Triumph by Julia Michael Johnston, p. 11), and this helped to change her idea of home. She began to give thanks for the qualities that make home—the spiritual qualities, such as harmony and joy, purity, beauty, love. Not only did she feel grateful for these qualities, but she began to express more of them in her home and among her neighbors. Her attitude toward the superintendent and his wife changed.

She was so busy expressing gratitude for the good she already had that she no longer fretted because she had to stay in the apartment. You see, she was finding a happy, harmonious sense of home right where she was. The superintendent and his wife became cooperative and helpful. And within a year this family found a new home exactly suited to their needs. She says they were blessed at the time; but learning the importance of gratitude has continued to bless their whole experience.