Author, activist, and lecturer Helen Keller wisely said, “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.”
If it appears that some aspect of goodness has disappeared from our life, where can we turn for a more grounded sense of good as a constant, rather than getting dragged down by what appears to be missing?
At such times I’ve found it encouraging to consider this affirmation in the Bible: “The goodness of God endureth continually” (Psalms 52:1). What a comforting thought: In all of His children and without exception, God’s goodness is freely and steadily expressed.
Because God is Spirit, His goodness is both spiritual and infinite. It isn’t constrained by physicality or material events. And because it’s of God, who is eternal, it is changeless – time cannot erode it.
Christian Science teaches that each of us is God’s child – the entirely spiritual reflection of His entirely good nature. God is constantly causing His pure goodness to overflow in us, without reserve. Choosing to become more aware of this all-encompassing goodness is powerful prayer.
A first step in doing so can be simply acknowledging the all-presence of God, the source of all true good. God, infinite Love, cannot be displaced. God is here. God is now.
Christ Jesus taught and proved God’s present, unchanging goodness. When he was asked “when the kingdom of God should come,” he responded, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20, 21). Instead of depending simply on what his eyes saw around him, Jesus looked to God in prayer – which revealed that God’s brilliant goodness isn’t at all hidden, but is forever expressed in and through all of His children.
Holding to this understanding, Jesus healed, restored, fed, and redeemed people.
Through Christ, God’s loving, healing voice, God communicates these truths to all of us, His children, too. As we pray, the golden Christ light makes clear the fact of God’s distinct presence and goodness, to the exclusion of all that is unlike pure goodness.
When I was a child, there was a period when I thought that God had abandoned me and my family. Wherever I looked, I saw only lack and loneliness.
It was in Christian Science Sunday School that I learned I could look to Christ to help me feel the love of God. I began to see that right where loneliness and lack seemed to be, there was something more powerful: divine goodness that was always fully present. “The goodness of God endureth continually” became so much more to me than a little Bible verse; it defined how I saw everything that I experienced. And with that transformation of thought, that continual goodness became more evident in my life.
From that point on, that biblical revelation has led the way for me, along with this statement by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science: “Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 66).
Yes, the enduring goodness of God is always encouraging to consider – at the beginning of a new year and throughout the other 11 months, too. In her “Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” Mrs. Eddy insightfully observes, “The present is ours; the future, big with events” (p. 12). As we behold, through prayer, God’s present goodness, we thrive, love, grow, and heal.
