Learning from God
A Christian Science perspective: An understanding of God enhances our ability to learn.
For many, ignorance and illiteracy appear to stand in the way of progress. Education is seen to play a vital role in one’s advancement, but not everyone seems to have the ability or opportunity to learn.
An understanding that God is Mind, as the Bible indicates He is, can do much to help liberate mankind from the limitations imposed by material existence. It can greatly enhance the learning process for everyone, whatever one’s age or background.
In reality, we all are children of God, reflecting His nature. And because God is ever-present, all-knowing Mind, we all have direct access to the wisdom and intelligence we need to prosper. Every individual can draw on the infinite resources of Mind. God can be his or her teacher. While education is of vital importance to society, one need not despair if no human channels are available to pursue an education, or if facilities are inadequate. God-derived creativity, perception, and ability are right at hand to tutor and guide.
God loves and cares for all His children, without exception. He provides the opportunities for our progress and development. We each have an “open door” before us, the Bible declares, “and no man can shut it” (Revelation 3:8).
No one is condemned to stagnation and frustration. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 258).
We all, in truth, are freeborn, God-created, and God-governed, even though circumstances would sometimes have us believe otherwise. God is actually the supreme authority and power in our lives. As we awake to this fact, great changes can occur. Communication barriers can come crashing down.
An experience I had on a business trip to Brazil a number of years ago illustrates how limitations can be overcome through reliance on God. Although college-educated and a linguist, I had no real knowledge of Portuguese. I was traveling alone and needed a command of the language to fulfill what was required of me during the trip.
Throughout the journey I held to the spiritual truth that Mind is the real communicator. I knew that because I and everyone I spoke with were actually the reflection of the one Mind, we all could understand one another with clarity and precision. I affirmed that in truth we had the same Father, hence the same heritage, and could meet on common ground. Recalling the Pentecostal experience, where Jesus’ disciples preached and “every man heard them speak in his own language” (Acts 2:6), I knew there could, in reality, be no misunderstandings of any kind.
During my entire stay in Brazil I understood everything said to me, and by the end of my visit I was able to speak Portuguese so well that a few people mistook me for a native, much to my surprise. I was reminded of what the Jews said of Jesus when he taught in the temple: “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” Jesus answered, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me” (John 7:15, 16).
Truly it is God that enables us to learn. As we listen to Him for direction, we find the inspiration we need to function freely and progress. Retention can be ours without limit. We can speak with authority and conviction. Under Mind’s government there are no mental blocks or failures.
What a comfort to know that God is Mind!
Reprinted from the Sept. 23, 1983, issue of The Christian Science Monitor.