A Met Prelude of Poetry for
the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Man”
for September 5, 2021
by Ken Cooper, UK
[Ken:] “We understand from the recent run of lessons that God is Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, Soul, Mind, and that the Principle that binds these together is made manifest in Christ Jesus, the Beloved Son of God. This week’s lesson is “Man”, -the culmination of all that has gone before. The simplicity of the Christ-message is that we are all the blessed children of God, as stated in the Golden Text “…all of you are the children of the most high”. (Psalms 82:6 all). We are the simultaneous product, the outcome, of Life, Truth, Love, Spirit, Soul, Mind, all at once, and in infinite ways. Man is governed by this infinite Principle. It is unwavering. When we express what we are, the children of God, we receive the blessing and fulfilment of what we are. This comes from humility.
“Mortal mind would have us believe in man as a separate entity, but the One Mind has no separation, and we ascribe to this one Mind when we accept we are wholly dependent on our divine parentage. This is true freedom and blessedness for it is the expression of God who is infinite. The lesson shares this paradox that to become man we have to become a child. True prayer is the humble acceptance that God is All-in-all. In my poem “As a child”, a shared link from the journal, there is a recognition that in prayer we become as a child, and we can sense the reality of being not just for ourselves but for everyone.
“The sermon on the mount gives us the “be-attitudes”, the necessity of being “as a child”, and it is towards the end of this great sermon that Jesus gives us The Lord’s Prayer, which begins “Our Father”. This confirms straightaway we are all His children, and that our God is all-harmonious. The recognition that we are with God (“I am with Thee”) is our focus for action and our prayer for the world! We are blessed, and our actions give blessings, when we are with God.
“And we are always with God. In the infinity of Love nothing and no one is ever lost. We can never be outside infinite Love, nor hidden from infinite Mind, which knows all. “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation”. In its purest sense, a child is the manifestation of its parent. In the infinite presence of God there are no exceptions. The poem “The Good Shepherd: You are Mine” confirms that everyone is loved, for God sees us as His children, and in the narrative the Shepherd knows all His sheep by name. God knows and loves each one of us as His dearly beloved children. This is what we are, wherever we are.
“The message of the sermon on the mount can be summarised: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Bible cit.5) As God is our Father-Mother, we are all God’s children, for ever blessed.
