“Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love -- be it song, sermon, or Science--blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty.” Science & Health 234:4
This is one of my favorite thoughts from Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science & Health, with Key to the Scriptures. It’s a book that I use to help me study the Bible and understand the healing work of Jesus Christ. I was reminded of this quote recently because a friend of mine commented that she had read a story about women who were role models for 2012 -- it was supposed to be inspirational. Her comment was that she couldn’t relate to the women on the list, she had nothing in common with them.
As we typed, because this was a Facebook conversation, I thought of Mary and Martha (their story is in the book of Luke) Martha is bustling about the house making dinner, entertaining Jesus and his friends, etc while Mary is just sitting and listening. Martha, like many of us would be, is disgusted with her sister and finally tells Jesus to tell her to get up and help. Jesus basically tells her “Martha, Only one thing is really important. Listening to God’s word and Mary has chosen to listen and that can’t be taken away from her.”
Well I continued think about other Biblical women and realized there were certainly crumbs of inspiration in their stories. The more I thought About it I realized these women expressed strength, humility, courage, compassion...the list of admirable qualities just went on and on.
I thought about Sarah believing God when he told her she would be a mother, even though the calendar said she was too old. I thought about the Queen of Sheba, how in her quest for a clearer understanding of God she sought out Solomon. I thought about Hagar fining water in the wilderness. And the mother of Moses leaving her baby in swamp of all places, trusting his future to God. Or the widow who obediently gathers every jug she can to pour out a small jug of oil so she can pay her debts. Each of these women listened and acted when the message came and each one was blessed. What better inspiration can there be?
On another page of her book Science & Health Mrs. Eddy explains that angels are the ideas that come to us from God she says they are “spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality,” S&H 581:5 If we study these biblical women and their lives we can see how they were led and how their lives benefited from trusting a higher wisdom then their own. It wasn’t just happenstance that improved or protected them. It was their conscious choice to be obedient and do what God asked them to, and I still think that is inspiring even 2000 years later.
