Those wonderful summer preserves

I am awestruck by this week's Bible Lesson! It is filled with inspiration and examples of how God is the preserver of man.

When I was a little girl my mother spent lots of time and effort each summer preserving fruits and vegetables. What a pleasure to open one of those jars in the winter months and smell and taste the freshness of that summer produce. She was so careful to only preserve those that were at the point of perfection, without blemish.  That is what God does for us. He created us perfect, whole and complete and He preserves as at that level. No deterioration. No blemishes. Nothing less than that original perfection as His image and likeness.

We are given three examples in the Lesson: David facing Goliath, a woman approaching Jesus with her incurable issue of blood, and Paul healing Eutychus after the young man appeared to fall to his death.

What do those people have in common? A deep and abiding faith in God as the preserver of man.

David was offered a full body armor and lethal weapons. He chose not to use them and to instead rely on his unshakable faith in God's power. David faced his adversary alone but with the armies of both nations watching.

The woman with the issue of blood knew that although all material methods had failed to heal her, contact with Jesus, with the Christ, would stop the loss of blood. She dared to approach the Master although the laws of her people forbade her to have any contact with anyone while she was ceremoniously unclean. She hid in the crowd but Jesus called her forth and her faith was rewarded. She had already received the healing, he just confirmed it.

Paul had been preaching and teaching this new Christianity to a huge gathering of people. One young man had fallen asleep and fallen three stories to the floor below. Paul now had the opportunity to prove what he had been telling them, God is the preserver of man. His faith in God's sustaining love allowed all of them to see the truths demonstrated.

The Bible Lesson also includes the beautiful 23rd Psalm, written by David along with excerpts from Psalm 91 and Psalm 139. Some of our most cherished sentences from Science and Health are also there.

Like opening up those beautiful and fragrant jars of preserves, this Lesson will be a special feast all week as I look to my own faith in divine Love and the promise that divine Mind maintains and sustains His own ideas.