A star with a summons for all
As one of the prime targets for Pioneer planetary probing, Venus commanded recent attention. But even the ancients noticed Venus. When it is not orbiting too close to the sun for us to see, it is the brightest planet in the night sky of Earth, easily visible with the naked eye.
Several months of the year, Venus presents itself as a morning star, rising (to our eyes) over the eastern horizon shortly before dawn, bringing brilliant promise of more light to come. The Bible, however, carries the morning star beyond astronomical definition. The Revelator writes: "I Jesus . . . am . . . the bright and morning star." n1
n1 Revelation 22:16.
Could the metaphor hint that just as the morning star announces solar dawn, so the mission of Christ Jesus foretells a dawn of spiritual understanding?
Dawn implies a sun. In spiritual terms, the sun symbolizes God governing man , God's pure expression. Man dwells in the eternal day of divine Life, reflecting complete understanding and absolute obedience to the one all-governing intelligence, divine Mind. Why, then, a dawn?
Widespread belief in many minds, instead of one Mind reflected, has shaded the healing light of divine reality from humanity, much as the turning of the earth brings on night. But the shadowy gloom where evil and death seem to abound can no more elude the healing effulgence of divine Truth, Love, and Life than Earth's night can escape solar day.
Even when things seem darkest to us, Christ Jesus' teachings of triumphant living, and his demonstrations of healing and resurrection, remind us that spiritual enlightenment can fully restore our native exemption from woe. Through a correct understanding of and faithful adherence to the truth Jesus taught and practiced, individuals re-turn Godward. And as one emerges, through spiritual rebirth, from faint recognition of his potential identity as a child of God into full realization of that identity, he is never without reassurance and direction.
The Bethlehem star that guided wise men to Jesus' cradle is thought by some to have been a rare conjunction of planets. But the same divine Principle of attraction that impelled the wise men's journey still instructs spiritually-tending thinkers of today. Impartial, divine Love continuously fulfills for every seeker and finder of divine wisdom its sacred pledge: "I will give him the morning star." n2
Spiritual, not solar, light enabled the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, to explain: "As the Wisemen grew in the understanding of Christ, the spiritual idea, it grew in favor with them. Thus it will continue, as it shall become understood, until man be found in the actual likeness of his Maker." n3
n3 Miscellaneous Writings,m p. 164.
Through the Master's life, the morning star of perfect example forever shines , visible in eternal day even as Venus sometimes remains visible in solar day. While no individual can take the indispensable place of Christ Jesus, still, we do him honor when we follow his example, for he instructed us to do so. Surely, wherever the Christ, Truth, is understood and Christian healing practiced as he exemplified, the morning star of fresh unfoldment shines. In a way, the morning star mission then becomes our mission, too. As the prophet said: "The Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." n4
n4 Isaiah 60:2, 3.
When one individual's practice of Truth attracts another's search for wisdom, their conjunction brightens like a Christmas star with a summons for all who seek Truth. And so the reborn babe of Christian healing continues to increase in stature and influence. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1