Waking up to the true spirit of Christmas
/Question 2: Share a testimony other than physical healing in which reading one or more of Skip’s articles had played an important part in your own spiritual study and prayer and final demonstration.
A relationship with a friend seemed to have deteriorated during the many months of “lockdown,” when we relied on texts and emails to stay in touch. Our digital exchanges seemed to become far more complicated than they needed to be, and we finally reached a point where we simply stopped communicating altogether. Although reconciliation did not seem possible from a limited human viewpoint, I continued to cherish all the good our families had shared while our children were growing up, and trusted that God would lead the way.
We seemed at an impasse until shortly after Christmas, when Mr. Phinney’s article “Finding the heart, the spirit, and the Soul of Christmas” (Journal, December 2017) caught my attention. It was certainly a wake-up call that illuminated “the true spirit of Christmas” and challenged me to let go of any personal sense of love for my friend. The article reminded me that, “As Christian Scientists, we are growing in the understanding that Christmas is about love and its limitless source—the divine love just referred to as the ‘love of Christ.’ Christmas becomes to us something that doesn’t disappear after a day….Letting go of the false impression that Christmas is about a fragile, fleeting spirit of love that we’re personally hoping to hold on to, we learn more and more of the true dimensions of Christmas as the dawning on us of divine Love.
And we go on finding the continual joy and evidence of all that God is and does.” After reading this article, I felt led to reach out to my friend via text and received a warm response. This prompted a phone conversation and later an in-person meeting. We have since found other occasions to meet, including a recent invite to the Good Friday service at her family’s church. Reflecting on this experience, these words from Hymn 51 came to thought:
“God could not make imperfect man/ HIs model infinite;/ Unhallowed thought He could not plan,/ Love’s work and Love must fit./ Life, Truth and Love the pattern make,/ Christ is the perfect heir;/ The clouds of sense roll back, and show/ The form divinely fair.”