Good Gifts

In Luke, Jesus tells his followers “If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?  or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (10:11-13)

Building on that, Mary Baker Eddy adds, “When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone, — but more grace, obedience, and love.  If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the bread of heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it the ‘river of His pleasure,’ the tributary of divine Love, and great growth in Christian Science will follow, — even that joy which finds one’s own in another’s good.”  (Miscellaneous Writings p. 127)

Both statements show that God’s good gifts are ever present, and already bestowed upon us.  Let us accept them by opening our hearts to receive them – by redirecting thought distracted by discord – to see and recognize their immediate fruition.

These are the gifts that keep on giving.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.