When Green Replaces Gray
EVERY spring the green of new leaves and grass replaces the brown and gray of winter. It's a renewal we all look forward to. But have you considered green thinking versus gray? Wouldn't green thinking include freshness, resourcefulness, unselfishness, growth, preservation? And gray would certainly describe the spiritual dullness that leads to waste, lack, stagnation, selfishness. Spring only happens once a year, but the spiritualization of our thought can happen anytime, regardless of the weather or the season. Far from being unnecessary or unrealistic, spiritual renewal counteracts the selfishness that says a certain amount of gray thinking is a "must.'' The selfish attitude of "looking out for number one'' is a prime example of what the Bible calls "the spirit of the world.'' Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, says, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the wo rld, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.''
When we're thinking selfishly, we miss getting to know this God who gives freely to each of His children. Before we can really understand the wonders of what God gives, then, we have to know Him 209>the Giver of all good 209>better. The Bible identifies God as Love and shows over and over that the power and reach of God's love are beyond measuring. Also, the Bible speaks of God as infinite Spirit, the creator of all, and it speaks of Him as the divine Life that knows no death.
Knowing God in this way is important because it helps us better understand man, who is created in His likeness. If we're thinking that man is mostly animal in his nature, motivated by material urges and selfish drives, then we would hardly expect unselfish thinking and action from him. But this isn't the man God creates. That free gift of God is the spiritual nature of all that God creates. Man is spiritual, and understanding this brings the renewal that we yearn for.
Creation flows from a central intelligence. This intelligence is God, divine Mind. As the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "Man is the expression of God's being.'' God's thoughts flow to man and man expresses them. Since God is the great giver, man doesn't have to intercept God's gifts and then hold on to them for himself. Instead, the free flow of abundant good provides plenty for all.
Naturally, gray thought can never embrace such an unlimited concept. But this truth about God and man can penetrate our thinking (at any time, on any subject) and turn it from a limited, indrawn viewpoint with the renewal of a God-oriented view.
Of course, we aren't responsible for how others act. But we can fill our own lives with Godlike thinking! This can throw new light in others' eyes on just what man is. And it's a light that will not go unnoticed nor fail to have an effect. "And man, more friendly, should call his race as gently to the springtide of Christ's dear love,'' Mrs. Eddy writes in Miscellaneous Writings. And she continues: "St. Paul wrote, 'Rejoice in the Lord always.' And why not, since man's possibilities are infinite, bliss is eternal, and the consciousness thereof is here and now?''
The divine thought that comes to us from God is meant to radiate and magnify, not consume or waste. As thought comes from divine Spirit, its purpose is to fill our entire being with spiritual light. As we work to allow it to do this, we won't be able to hide our happiness. It'll be as obvious as the returning spring.
