I sincerely hope the New Year of 2022 has started off well for you.
It’s interesting to me how the flip of a calendar date has such an impactful influence throughout the world – celebrations, fireworks, spirits flowing, renewed hope and more. Yet for many people it’s barely noticeable because their lives, or at least circumstances thereof, remain the same. Nevertheless, one can hope that there will be truly profound as well as small impactful changes which will bless and benefit all human beings and the creatures on earth.
A year ago, I referenced the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The novel famously begins, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” Though written in 1859, and though times now are mostly much better, these words still hold true for many throughout the world. And, for many of those in the healthcare industry, they may have felt at times being a beaten down Dickens’ character or someone on the so-called reality TV show Survivor or probably worse.
The Holy Bible (wherein there are a lot of accounts of survival, usually from obedience to and reliance on God) includes the book of Ecclesiastes; or the Preacher. Perhaps the most familiar passage from this long-ago preacher is, in part: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…A time to love…And a time of peace.” (Ecclesiastes 3, NKJV)
Certainly, this relatively brief chapter, with its antithetical pairs using opposites to represent life’s totality and variety, expresses through words much of what the human experience often is influenced by or involves (The Harper Collins Study Bible, NRSV, p. 894). My own lifetime of experience has shown me to believe that usually one’s thought, one’s actions, most often determine one’s experience.
Yet, even with so many daunting challenges and sporadic events at times, I believe no matter what, hope does spring eternal. I also believe love does prevail. And, I’ve always, perhaps unrealistically though ideally, believed peace will reign on earth, even if apparently not in my lifetime. For those who know me, I certainly may be considered more of an idealist than an optimist during my life. Regardless I have tried my best at most times to live a life of hope, faith and love. To be a steady light – though dimly yet consistently – of truth.
So, yes, as Dickens wrote, this can be an “age of wisdom” and a “season of light”, a “spring of hope” and of love universally expressed!
Moreover, as a Christian Science nursing ministry of 70 plus years and a nonprofit organization concluding in its 75th year, Wide Horizon remarkably continues its good works of benevolent Christian care for our community and hopefully all humankind. Wide Horizon is blessed to be a blessing!
As I shared at the closing of 2020, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, extemporaneously wrote the following on the morning of January 1, 1910:
O blessings infinite!
O glad New Year!
Sweet sign and substance
Of God’s presence here.
Give us not only angels’ songs,
But Science vast, to which belongs
The tongue of angels
And the song of songs.
MARY BAKER EDDY
(The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 354)
This “Science” is the “Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ Science or Christian Science” Mrs. Eddy speaks of synonymously in her seminal work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures on p. 127. It is the Science which simply stated is the divine laws of Truth, Life and Love made practical, or Christian Science which “relates especially to Science as applied to humanity” in the healing of sin and sickness (Ibid. p. 127). This spiritual practicality pertains aptly to Christian Science nursing.
At Wide Horizon, we provide loving care for those in need. We do our best to live and practice this Science each day, while serving others in support of their own demonstrations of Christian Science. We seek to humbly emulate the good works, ministry and teachings of Christ Jesus. And, we desire that you may feel God’s holy presence, experience health and happiness, and hear Spirit’s angelic song of “Science” wherever you are throughout this New Year!
D. Brian Boettiger
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