No-one can give what he has not received.
To give a thing requires first you have
it in your own possession. Here the laws
of Heaven and the world agree. But here
they also separate. The world believes
that to possess a thing it must be kept.
Salvation teaches otherwise. To give
is how to recognize you have received.
It is the proof that what you have is yours.
You understand that you are healed when you
give healing. You accept forgiveness as
accomplished in yourself as you forgive.
You recognize your brother as yourself,
and thus you will perceive that you are whole.
There is no miracle you cannot give,
for all are given you. Receive them now
by opening the storehouse of your mind
where they are laid, and giving them away.
Christ's vision is a miracle. It comes
from far beyond itself, for it reflects
Eternal Love and the rebirth of love
which never died, but has been kept obscure.
Christ's vision pictures Heaven, for it sees
a world so like to Heaven that what God
created perfect can be mirrored there.
The darkened glass the world presents can show
but twisted images in broken parts.
The real world pictures Heaven's innocence.
Christ's vision is the miracle in which
all miracles are born. It is their source,
remaining with each miracle you give,
and yet remaining yours. It is the bond
by which the giver and receiver are
united in extension here on earth
as they are one in Heaven. Christ beholds
no sin in anyone, and in His sight
the sinless are as one. Their holiness
was given by His Father and Himself.
Christ's vision is the bridge between the worlds,
and on its power can you safely trust
to carry you from this world into one
made holy by forgiveness. Things which seem
quite solid here are merely shadows there,
transparent, faintly seen, at times forgot,
and never able to obscure the light
that shines beyond them. Holiness has been
restored to vision, and the blind can see.
This is the Holy Spirit's single gift;
the treasurehouse to which you can appeal
with perfect certainty for everything
that can contribute to your happiness.
All are laid here already. All can be
received but for the asking. Here the door
is never locked, and no-one is denied
his least request or his most urgent need.
There is no sickness not already healed,
no lack unsatisfied, no need unmet
within this golden treasury of Christ.
Here does the world remember what was lost
when it was made. For here it is repaired,
made new again but in a different light.
What was to be the home of sin becomes
the center of redemption and the hearth
of mercy, where the suffering are healed
and welcome. No-one will be turned away
from this new home where his salvation waits.
No-one is stranger to him. No-one asks
for anything of him except the gift
of his acceptance of his welcoming.
Christ's vision is the holy ground in which
the lilies of forgiveness set their roots.
This is their home. They can be brought from here
back to the world, but they can never grow
in its unnourishing and shallow soil.
They need the light and warmth and kindly care
Christ's charity affords. They need the love
with which He looks on them. And they become
His messengers, which give as they received.
Take from His storehouse that its treasures may
increase. His lilies do not leave their home
when they are carried back into the world.
Their roots remain. They do not leave their source,
but carry its beneficence with them,
and turn the world into a garden like
the one they came from, and to which they go
again with added fragrance. Now are they
twice blessed. The messages they brought from Christ
have been delivered and returned to them.
And they return them gladly unto Him.
Behold the store of miracles set out
for you to give. Are you not worth the gift,
when God appointed it be given you?
Judge not God's Son, but follow in the way
He has established. Christ has dreamed the dream
of a forgiven world. It is His gift
whereby a sweet transition can be made
from death to life, from hopelessness to hope.
Let us an instant dream with Him. His dream
awakens us to truth. His vision gives
the means for a return to our unlost
and everlasting sanctity in God.
