Happy renewal year
"Happy New Year." We all do mean it when we say it. Yet behind the expression may lurk a somewhat insidious concept. The "happy" part is fine. It's our sincere wish for others peace, prosperity, joy, safety -- Godhs blessing. But what of "year"?
"Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which is the solar year," n1 writes MAry Baker Eddy n2 bluntly. The statement constitutes a portion of her definition of "year," found in the section of the Christian Science textbook called Key to the Scriptures.
n1 science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m pp. 598-599.
n2 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.
"Mortal thought" is based on beginnings and endings; the root of mortalm means "death." But mortal thought has misconceived man. Man, Christian Science teaches, is the offspring of Spirit, God, and is a spiritual being. He doesn't begin. He doesn't end. He and the spiritual universe are the expression of Mind, or God, the eternal and infinite creator. Immortal Man -- the true selfhood of each of us -- embodies God's ageless perfection and continuity.
God is Love. How many years constitute Love? God is Truth. How old is that?God is Soul, including and imparting all loveliness. Is true beauty bound into time? God is Life. How many years ago did God, Life, begin? The Bible makes it clear that God is eternal.
Christ, the eternal idea of God, was best exemplified humanly by Christ Jesus , whose virgin birth fully negated the dream of mortal beginnings; his resurrection and ascension similarly reversed the false claim of endings, or death. And today every Christly thought of ours --and every deed of love -- is living, death-less discipleship, following the master Christian.
What thrilling truths of man's -- our -- real, eternal being he told us and showed us! Freedom from lack (feeding the multutude), exemption from illness (healing the sick and infirm), dominion over matter (walking on water), deathless life (raising of Lazarus), and sinless affection (loving the world). How our hearts burn within us on our Emmaus walk n3 to a recognition of our true , Christlike selves. That's real renewal, the kind that cleanses and regenerates character and imparts strength and health. Referring to the Christly ideal of timeless, spiritual man, Mrs. Eddy states: "Man, governed by immportal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness." n4
n3 See Luke 24:13-35.
n4 Science and Health,m p. 246.
Because we are in reality the sons and daughters of the Most High, our sense of renewal needn't depend on a date on the calendar. The Bible reveals the Father's great love of us as constant: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning." n5 As we resolve to turh Godward in understanding prayer, acknowledging Him to be the omnipotent and wholly good Principle of all -- and do this daily -- time's sting is progressively destroyed in our lives. Opening hearts and minds to Him, we receive in return daily bread of comfort, protection, guidance, peace. Then we find ourselves happy and new each day of the year.
n5 Lamentations 3:22, 23.
DAILY BIBLE VERSE Praise waiteth for thee, O God. . . . Thou crownest the year with thy goodness. Psalms 65:1, 11
