II. SECTION 13. What is a Miracle?
Lesson 349 Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not but give each one a miracle of love instead.
- So would I liberate all things I see and give to them the freedom that I seek. For thus do I obey the law of love and give what I would find and make my own. It will be given me, because I have chosen it as the gift I want to give. Father, Your gifts are mine. Each one that I accept gives me a miracle to give. And giving as I would receive, I learn Your healing miracles belong to me.
- Our Father knows our needs. He gives us grace to meet them all. And so we trust in Him to send us miracles to bless the world and heal our minds as we return to Him.[1]
To practice miracles, we must look on our brothers through the eyes of Christ. What we want for ourselves, we must offer to our brothers – no matter who they are, what they have done or failed to do, the people they may have hurt, or the color of their skin.
Today, miracles workers, let us learn the law of love and train our mind to obey it. This excerpt from the prayer part of our lesson today is a wonderful recitation to help us remember to practice the law of love in every encounter:
Thus do I obey the law of love and give what I would find and make my own. It will be given me, because I have chosen it as the gift I want to give.
Remember God’s gifts to us of mercy, peace, joy, and love? These are the gifts we make our own by giving to those we meet. When we give God’s gifts, we are healed, and we heal others.
The other night at a little Christmas get-together somebody showed up that has, over the course of the last several years, done some very hurtful and disappointing things. Lies, stealing, cheating – you name it, this guy has done it. My initial reaction was one of distancing myself from him. I did not want to look at him or talk to him. I was thinking about asking my husband not to look at him or talk to him. But James, unlike me, was practicing the law of love. He does not look at this fellow through the unforgiving eyes of the ego; he looks upon him as a brother who is a Son of God.
I know that I cannot go to heaven without this brother. My attitude toward him should not be one of distancing myself from him, but offering him healing, forgiveness, correction, because if I withhold it from him, I not only withhold what my brother so desperately needs, but I cannot keep God’s gifts for myself!
The Lord knows my struggles. The Lord knows your struggles. By His grace, we will choose to practice the law of love. By His grace, we will learn not only to practice the law of love, but to treasure the law of love, and teach it to others. This is the way miracles are delivered to bless the world and heal our minds from the strange idea that our grudges, unforgiveness, and distance between others will bring us anything of value.
If we want our brother to join us on the path to God, we must offer him total forgiveness for the mistakes he makes. We must refuse to judge him. We must be vigilant against any feelings of ill will toward him, for healing and correction come only as we extend to him God’s gifts of mercy, peace, and joy. We make this hard by dwelling on his wrongdoing instead of what is right about him. We find it much easier to list his failures because when we are listing his, we can forget, for that little while, all of our own.
Today, ask God to reveal to you, the opportunities that you have each and every day to practice the law of love. Even on the days that you do not get out of your house and mingle with others, we can practice the law of love in our minds toward those whom we have singled out to be our enemies, our least favorites, the ones who scare us, the ones who get on our last nerve. Receive God’s grace to extend to them the gifts that He has given you. This is the way of miracles. This is what saves the world. This is what saves you.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 349. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). p. 478.
Audio credit: www.eckiefriar.com
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