“The Creation chapter…shines an undimmable light on all the circumstances that seem so entrenched.”

The events taking place on the national and world stage have been unsettling, and I'm becoming increasingly aware of deep patterns of injustice that have been going on for quite a long time. Through Christian Science, it feels possible and even imperative to pray more deeply and sincerely for others (both outside of and within my immediate orbit) to find the security and peace that they need to go forward.

In "Creation," the phrase that speaks to me the most clearly along these lines is "a more expansive love." That phrase is part of a paragraph (SH 265:10) that meant the world to me many years ago in dealing with a professor who was quite unkind and unfair. The stakes seemed very high. That passage helped bring about the turnaround that was needed. I realized that for me to find the "higher and more permanent peace" that I needed so much, my sense of Love needed to be expansive enough to include him. (SH, p. 265)

There seems to be a widespread view of the world that would put people into silos based on race, nationality, political party, religion, gender, sexual orientation, preferred news sources, etc., and claim that there is no trust or respect, let alone love, possible across these various divisions. As one example of many, a friend's extended family no longer had Christmas together last year, as had been their annual tradition for decades. They just couldn't cope with the magnitude of their political disagreement since the election. This rampant state of fear, distrust, and outrage seems humanly understandable, but at the same time, spiritually unnatural.

I have been so encouraged, when circumstances have been challenging, to find the depth of the insight that the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings offer. Over and over again, these texts bear out deep experiences of Love in the face of anything error would suggest, and they are ready to bless us in all our need. Bringing this set of issues to the Creation chapter has been incredibly productive for me. It shines an undimmable light on all the circumstances that seem so entrenched.

I started reading through Creation two or three pages at a time, taking notes from the standpoint of what I felt I needed out of it.  I felt I was getting somewhere around the paragraph starting at the bottom of page 257.

Begin by learning more of God’s infinite allness, and let all finite conception be transformed through this dawning understanding. This goes with my understanding relating to following the news. It is crucial to start with Truth, and give more time and energy and credence to Truth than to even the disbelief of lies. We begin with what is real, and from that basis unmask what is unreal with tangible effects. Pointing out error is not enough.

Here are a few of my other notes, with their corresponding passages cited, that help me see how deeply practical this chapter is.

(258:9)
Be a witness to God’s man. Look for that evidence, both where you expect to find it and where you don’t.

(258:21)
We find our real capacities when we root them in God’s being.

(258:31)
No one can rightfully or lawfully deny the allness of God and His love for his entire creation.

(259:6)
Imperfect man is a completely inadequate basis. We cannot effectively move forward while holding less than the true image.

(260:13)
Here is the need for radical reliance on Truth. We don’t know ourselves as God knows us, and we need to rest on His knowledge of our capacity.

(260:24)
Am I resting on human conceptions or on divine good? To look in one direction is to look away from the other.

(263:1)
We inhabit God’s creation, not man’s. Let’s live in the kingdom.

(267:1)
We live in Spirit. We never lived in matter and are never in matter’s hold. This is the great fact that needs to be brought to light. Those with less “privilege” may be in a better position to recognize it. ("Blessed are the poor in spirit.")

(267:8)
We are in one creation, and it is God’s. No human power can undermine or change the course of God’s work.

The word radical keeps occurring to me through all of this thought and prayer. It is used in powerful ways in Mrs. Eddy's writing.  It is not a word that appears in this chapter, but the meaning of the word, "of or going to the root or origin; fundamental," applies beautifully to this whole chapter. Science presents the radical creation, because it presents God's creation. It is a radical act to recognize and demonstrate that this creation is not just our past, but our present and our future. That's one of the things that comes through powerfully in our Association meetings.