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47: A New Normal

Experts are saying that we should accept “a new normal” regarding the pandemic. Do we have to accept that? Must we see ourselves living year after year with some aspect of Covid and its variations?

Consider another more radical view.  It requires starting with God, not oneself. It means accepting God, Good, as the norm. It means understanding God to be infinite Mind, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, the governing Principle who made us in His image and likeness. Seeing ourselves this way, as God’s spiritual offspring–not as sense-defined mortals–reveals a very different standpoint than one trembling in fear, disease, and death. We’ve plenty of biblical support for this primal perspective. Deuteronomy states: “God is thy life, and the length of our days.” (Deut.30: 20). Pick any Psalm and you will hear again and again that God is your rock, fortress, deliverer, the source of your strength, in whom you can trust. Look at Christ Jesus’ healing and his words “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father” (John 14: 12). So it is to God, Spirit, I suggest we look for the true state of things, not to material assertions. No pandemic, disease, nor any negative condition can override God’s loving care for all his children.

 

Following births of two sons and three miscarriages, my 6th pregnancy was considered dangerous due to RH negative statistics, the baby’s large size, and my age. Three weeks before the birth, the doctor told me the birth would definitely be breech and not normal. I suggested perhaps the baby might turn, but he refuted this, explaining it was too late, describing potential difficulties, including surgery. Immediately after this, I phoned someone with whom I was working prayerfully during the nine months, relaying what I’d been told. He assured me I was in God’s care and could expect a normal birth, offering this verse from Ezekiel:  “I will overturn, overturn, overturn…. until he come whose right it is;” (Ezek.21:27) By next week’s exam the baby had indeed turned and a few days later my 9-pound baby daughter was born normally and naturally in less than two hours. Deeply grateful, after delivery, I reached for my hymnal; it fell open to hymn # 216 which reads:  “Oh, he who trusts in God’s protection, And hopes in Him when fears alarm, Is sheltered by His loving kindness, Delivered by His mighty arm;”

 

Material conditions cannot dictate normalcy. In a textbook I read regularly, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, this idea stood out to me in thinking about the fact that a pandemic cannot dictate “a new norm”: “Disease is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of Mind [God] or to dethrone Mind and take the government into its own hands.  Sickness is not a God-given, nor a self-constituted material power, which copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it. God never endowed matter with power to disable Life… “(P. 378). God is infinite Life, Mind, Love, Truth, Spirit, our Source. Our life thrives in knowing and practicing this fact.

The only normal we need to expect today–or any day–is God’s infinite norm.

Untitled oil w/mixed media on canvas, approx. 30″ x 30″, sold. By Gwendolyn Evans

 

Artwork: Untitled oil w/mixed media on canvas, approx. 30″ x 30″, sold.  This abstract, a favorite, I painted about two decades ago, though (typically) I no longer recall its title or to whom I sold it.  Its good quality, however, remains everlasting in my mind.

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