The spiritual gift of Christmas floods the world with sound hope—a hope that bears perennial fruit. This is the insuppressible blessing of the promise of Christmas, quenching the wants and woes of the world with divine comfort. It invigorates our lives with an ideal so perfect and so momentous that we are swept up in its promise and beauty. Our experience of life itself is reborn through the divine Love heralded at Jesus’ birth.

Christ Jesus appeared in a world filled with barbarous political aggression, cruel civil codes, and religious corruption. But through his gentle yet powerful life, he forever destroyed evil’s claim to be able to dominate human endeavor and character. His preeminent example exposed the deceptive defects of a merciless material mind and gave to us all the spiritual knowledge of God’s, Love’s, indomitable mercy and goodness.

Today, we continue to discover what belongs to this higher, sweeter sense of Life as God, good, which brings the tender comfort of infinite Love into human focus. It is neither too profound to be understood nor too incredible to be believed. In fact, in a modest way, each time a harsh resentment yields to kind forgiveness, we have felt the unmistakable touch of Christ. This gives us a hint of what it could mean to overcome all that is hateful and wrong and to truly live in the kingdom of heaven.

There is infinitely more to Love’s creation than we would recognize without the lens of Jesus’ life—of the eternal Truth he lived. His birth revealed a new world, a saved world, beginning with the fact that cause is not material or physical, as proved by his birth.

The God-made, indestructible nature of Christ is foretold from the beginning of creation with God’s command, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3)—which revealed the spiritual light of Truth. Christ, “the light [that] shineth in darkness” (John 1:5), reveals to us Truth-made (not man-made) life, reality, purpose, perpetuity, and potential. The virgin birth pointed to this great wonder, God’s expression of purity and love, comforting fearful human hearts with life that never begins and never dies.

Jesus’ life (including his birth) overcame every material obstacle, exemplifying the Christ, Truth, moving among us and showing us heaven—perfect harmony—in our hearts. This divine influence denotes more than the words of the Gospels or the history of some ancient human events. It is the Word, inseparable from God, divine Life itself, that continues to send larger and larger ripples of grace throughout humanity, leading each of us irresistibly to our divine Parent.

As we allow the Christ to turn our thoughts toward God, we discover that everything takes on a new, spiritual hue. The great discovery, so poignantly portrayed in Jesus’ life, is that there is nothing as present or as real as Love. His life brought to earth an experience of Love unimaginably beyond human conceptions of love. We would not know the unlimited renovating power of forgiveness, the all-transforming vigor of spiritual integrity, or the infinite sustenance of grace-giving Love, without his world-awakening life.

Love regenerates every other incentive or ideal. It gives inexhaustible stamina to action and altruism. It gives to the gentleness of the dove the wisdom of a serpent, and to the wisdom of a serpent the gentleness of a dove. Nothing can compete with the pure, primal yearning for the heart-melting love of God to comfort and bless another. This yearning springs from the depths of our own flood of gratitude for God’s love.

Each time a harsh resentment yields to kind forgiveness, we have felt the unmistakable touch of Christ.

These ideas are profound and lofty, but they impact our lives in very direct and practical ways. I witnessed a touch of this transforming Christ-love several years ago when I was in England, teaching at a boarding facility for boys with behavioral problems. Most were around seventeen years old; all had been expelled from mainstream school; all were in foster care; several already had criminal records.

A few months into the job, I needed to bring my two-year-old son to work with me because his caregiver was unable to have him that day. He was an easygoing little fellow, so I thought it would be feasible to have him with me just for the day.

From the moment my son and I entered the classroom, my students behaved with more sweetness and tenderness than I had ever seen them express before. They made a big fuss over my son, and not a single profanity crossed their lips the entire day. This issue had been relentless, and nothing had worked to clean up their curse-ridden language. But on this day, without a word from me, they voluntarily, and perhaps unconsciously, just cleaned it right up completely, without a single slip.

They appeared to be spontaneously touched by the innocence of this little boy in their midst. I knew that if they could so naturally show this kindness to him, they could do it for themselves and others. I saw many heartwarming examples that day of these boys being thoughtful, unselfish, honest, and good. This proved to me that despite their rough circumstances, nothing could extinguish their true, God-made natures.

As we perceive divine Love’s embrace of the earth in heaven’s broad arms, we see tenderness and strength far beyond anything produced by human effort or education. We see the star of spiritual being shining, so bright and perfect and peaceful. There is no comparison between this majestic star pointing the way to spiritual Life and Love, and the rubble of dry, materially based theories leading to nothing but confusion and tedium. Who would not follow this star—the clearest, most direct way to understand divine Truth, God? It illumines the priceless milestones leading to what Life means, to what Truth is, and to what Love does.

When we let the love of Christ fill our hearts, we are regenerated. We feel reborn. Our old, material sense of identity with its history of twists and turns, happy and unhappy events, fades in the grandeur of Christ’s love, which is unconditionally, eternally ours.

How can we let this holy child, this divine idea of everlasting Love, inhabit our hearts? We cannot find it without first bringing to the manger our gifts of experience—the gold of unselfed motives, the frankincense of moderating meekness, the myrrh of purified integrity. With this rich kindling, the love of Christ ignites our hearts to be a flame for others—to warm cold sentiments, brighten dull hopes, invigorate tired faith—and to light up our understanding of Spirit’s transforming impetus. We are new-born.

Christmas is a light emitting light, divine Love illuming humanity’s path to heaven. There, fear, discord, grief, and pain lose all power to overwhelm, and in their stead is the all-pervading peace, joy, innocence, and endless possibilities of God’s perfect love.

This article was published in the December 13, 2021 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel. To learn more about this weekly inspirational magazine, published online and in print, visit HERE.