18/01/2021
When I was a little girl, my school held its Nativity play in a Chapel. We were hurried into this huge chapel, through it past all the pews and into a side room on the right which was dimly lit and told to get changed. As we got into our costumes for the part we were playing (I was a shepherd I think!) suddenly a light came on spotlighting a painting that was right beside me, above me on my left side. I looked up briefly and thought Wow, that's beautiful. Then a voice said loudly "Turn it off", no-one knew how, someone said something about pressing a button and eventually the light went off again. We all continued to get ready and nothing more was said about it as our thoughts were occupied by the play.
Years later when I was showing a friend round as a tourist or with my family visiting, I can't remember, I went into that chapel, pressed the button, and hey presto as the painting was illuminated this memory came flooding back of what had happened that afternoon when dressing for the Nativity play. I had no idea then that this was such a world famous treasure. The meaning of it as well as it's beauty has always stayed with me.
Below the painting, The Light of the World by Holman Hunt, the original hung in Keble College Chapel, Oxford, is written:
"Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me" Rev 3
In this week's Christian Science Bible lesson on the subject of Truth Mary Baker Eddy writes: "The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity."
I love the patient waiting, the gentle knocking, and the dawn of a new day in understanding that opening the door of consciousness to the Christ brings.
