[Ref. journal #16]
When I taught Sunday School, I was surprised to realize it was about seeing how I was being taught by God. When starting a new post in Christian Science branch church work, we might begin by thinking we have to know something or do something, only to find out we are engaged in a spiritual journey of finding out who we really are, and how our Father/Mother is speaking to us and lovingly guiding us, all the time.
My class contained 3 girls who were 7. We had been together in this class for a year. On Sunday I would arrive about 15 minutes early so I could have our class area all set for that day.
One Sunday I arrived and then didn’t feel well. Instead of setting up my class, I sat quietly at our table and prayed. One of my students arrived early that day. She saw me sitting at the table and came over and said with the purest sense of Love in her eyes, “God loves you”. Then she went off and talked and played with other children who were arriving. Her pure recognition of Love and her innocent expression of Love startled me as I realized I was well. (She was compelled with divine authority to state the Truth rather than inquire how I was, because she knew I was well.)
We started our class that morning with a joyful description of this healing. It was a powerful lesson for this young girl to realize she now understood how to heal. Before it was words and now it was seeing what God sees, a Christian Science practice. She was a thinker, someone who innately pursued her understanding of what is going on spiritually. Years later, she related to me that Sunday morning healing had stayed with her and had helped her. When she felt a moment of doubt — she instead had a moment of joy, knowing “God loves me”.
Naturally, the key to “God loves me” is understanding. Human care is love, seeing God expressed in another is divine Love. It means pure acceptance of the all-good we really are as spiritual beings. When we are encouraged through angel thoughts to see good, we let go of lies about ourselves and then can see and feel this for others. It is so empowering to live this way. In essence Sunday
School teaches that we are loved and frees us to divinely Love one another.
Because I became a Christian Scientist as a young adult, I did not attend Sunday School which teaches children up to the age of 20. Yet as a Sunday School teacher, I found that I was being taught of God to teach others while I grew spiritward.
Sunday School remains the most important post I’ve held as a member of a Christian Science branch church. Why? Because I learned we are all taught of God.
Carol Mason