Childhood: A Journey
IF there is anything obvious today it's that children living in the 1990s face large challenges. Too many children are growing up in circumstances that seem to allow them to experience not enough of the love, nurturing, and care that encourage hope in the future and esteem for one's own worth. An upcoming series beginning May 5 on The Monitor Channel, a nationwide cable network of The Christian Science Monitor shows that we don't need to accept such conditions as irreversible or hopeless. Perhaps one of the first steps in bringing healing to the harshness that children often face in the world is to realize that all people 209>children as well as adults 209>share common ground. The love and deep regard that are needed by children are necessary to all, regardless of age or station in life.
The Monitor has always had a strong focus on the welfare of children throughout the world. The Monitor Channel's series entitled Childhood: A Journey continues this long tradition. What underlies the Monitor's interest, however, is more than journalistic expertise, as important as this is. It is the deeper realization that man's true nature is spiritual and that understanding his relationship to God, infinite good, is paramount to everything in our lives. This understanding impels and requires love, universal love, for each and every individual.
The Monitor Channel is going to be taking a careful look at children from many angles. At the heart of this series is the real promise of what is already being accomplished, as well as what each of us can do here and now to improve the lives of children. The most important reason for hope lies in a spiritual understanding of man's oneness with God, which can't be destroyed. This is what gives preciousness to life and awakens our innate spiritual capacity to effect change, to live courageously, and to heal. The unselfish affection and sense of moral imperative that such awakening impels are evidence of man's spiritual ability to reflect the Love that is God.
The truth that man is God's spiritual expression is more than human idealism; it's a provable fact. While Christian Science has long been associated with the healing of disease through prayer, the understanding that man is the spiritual reflection of God leads to the wisdom and spiritual power to heal social ills. This, too, is an essential part of Mary Baker Eddy's discovery of the divine law that underlies New Testament Christian healing. Commenting on Christ Jesus' method of healing in the case of someone who suffered from mental illness, Mrs. Eddy, the founder of this newspaper, writes in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "The Scripture seems to import that Jesus caused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed.''
As we become more conscious of man's true nature as the spiritual child of God, reflecting the goodness and perfection of his divine Parent, we'll have the discernment and courage to see and to confront the evils that would injure humanity, and we'll find the practical means to overcome them. One of the most wonderful results will be that the reformation and healing that improve the lives of the world's children will extend to all people.
We need children; we need the opportunities they provide us to love, to labor, and to work together to see the power of divine Truth to transform life. Childhood: A Journey provides realistic assessment and common ground upon which to take up this Christian healing assignment.
