This is the fifth and last blog of a series on warmth and sincerity:
Divine Mind is another word for the unified force, or God.
I’ll read from my latest book, from science and religion to God, a briefer narrative of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health. “Connectivity exists in divine Mind.”
Mary Baker Eddy wrote about this idea of the connectivity of goodness, between warmth, sincerity, and us, in her Science and Health, back in the 19th century.
I’ll read the sentence again.
“Connectivity exists in divine Mind.”
This idea guides me to look past the separable things, past the legends, past the divisible human minds and bodies, to the one divine Mind where warmth and sincerity are bringing us along.
There’s a Bible story that shows this in action. In the Book, Ruth.
The storyline starts with a Judahite family that emigrates from Bethlehem to Moab. Back then, the Judahites and Moabites, didn’t necessarily get along. But the Judahite parents raised their two sons and they grew up to marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth.
The story took a turn for the worse and all three men died. I’m sure this wasn’t an easy time for the women, but efforts were made to move with ongoing warmth and sincerity.
The mother, Naomi, decided to return to Bethlehem. Orpah stayed in Moab, but Ruth wanted to go with Naomi. Ruth told Naomi, I like your God.
So, Naomi and Ruth move back. Now in Bethlehem, Ruth is the foreigner, generally looked down upon. But they needed to eat so Ruth went to work in a wheat field. The land owner was Boaz and he was able to look past ethnicity, look past her losses, and see, Ruth manifest goodness. Boaz married Ruth and she became the great-grandmother of King David, an iconic figure in the history of Christianity.
Not everyone is as quick as Boaz, to accept the silent heart that unites us. But enough of us are and we can keep strong in the reality of warmth and sincerity in motion bringing us along, even when we don’t feel it right away, because there are definite intersections in life where the movement is confirmed.
A Pew Research Study, titled 5 facts about Christmas in America, discusses different data related to Christmas.
One fact recorded that: “Among Americans overall, about half (51%) say they celebrate Christmas as more of a religious holiday, while roughly a third (32%) say it is more of a cultural holiday to them personally.”
That’s 83% celebrating Christmas. Even though they may not agree why, they still unite at the level of a holiday. Most of us like a holiday.
But (and this is important), we don’t want to overlook the other 17%. They confirm that the holidays aren’t what keep warmth and sincerity alive.
This lesson has expanded for me.
I’ve learned, what seems like the hard way, that human relationships also aren’t what keep warmth and sincerity alive and moving.
My oldest brother and I, grew up very close. We were like this. We talked all the time, about everything. We thought alike. We acted alike. We worked together. We trusted one another.
Until ten years ago, when I modernized and published Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health. (Snap) Like that, I was shunned by my brother and the church members who believe they have to read Mary Baker Eddy’s words. Only her words are acceptable. Period.
My feeling of being rejected and demoted in the eyes of people who I trusted and loved, was excruciatingly painful. It was a sore contradiction to warmth and sincerity. Very difficult to escape.
Thankfully, I didn’t say anything horrible to my brother, even though I sometimes wanted to.
I think he was protecting his church job. It was his income. His way of making a living and providing for his family, which he did with warmth and sincerity.
For these ten years, I tromped on. And to my confidence, I’ve never regretted my decision. The revision work has been an amazing journey.
Well…a few months ago, my brother’s daughter got married. Last August. We were invited to the wedding. That wedding served as an intersection of warmth and sincerity. It was a dot connected, you could say.
I went to the wedding out of love for my niece. When my brother noticed me in the room, he walked straight to me and directly told me, that he retired from his church position.
He talked to me without the suspicion and censuring I’d previously felt. I talked to him with cautious hope.
It was a definite experience… it was as if time stood still…no hurt, no past, no future. There was only the reality of ongoing warmth and sincerity bringing us along to greater expression.
Have a great season everyone.
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