[acimlessons_list] LESSON 350 - DECEMBER 16

[Sue Roth]

LESSON 350 - DECEMBER 16

"Miracles mirror God's eternal Love. 
To offer them is to remember Him, 
And through His memory to save the world."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS 

See complete instructions in separate document. 
A short summary:

* Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.

* Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.

* Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind
Meditation.

* Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in
meditation.

* Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea often within each hour.

* Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.

* Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.

COMMENTARY

To offer a miracle is to remember God, and through offering miracles we
literally save the world. We reincorporate the Son of God as God created him
(1:2). The theme of miracles has run through these last ten lessons, and the
page of teaching that preceded them.

	A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor
	really change at all. It merely looks on devastation,
	and reminds the mind that what it sees is false. It
	undoes error, but does not attempt to go beyond perception,
	nor exceed the function of forgiveness.	(W-pII.13.1:1-4)
	
In other words, a miracle and forgiveness are alike; both simply remind "the
mind that what it sees is false." To offer a miracle is to look beyond the
illusions and to see the truth. It is a refusal to share the littleness in
which others see themselves. I offer a miracle when I refuse to believe that
my brother is identified with and limited to his body and his ego. I refuse
to believe that anyone is defined by their behavior, and offer everyone the
opportunity to see themselves as more than they think they are, more
loveable and more loving than they think they are. That is a miracle, and
that also is forgiveness.

	What we forgive becomes a part of us, as we
	perceive ourselves. The Son of God incorporates
	all things within himself as You created him.
	(1:1-2)

That is an amazing statement! When we forgive something or someone, it or
she "becomes a part of us." It is almost as if by forgiving things and
people, we are regathering the fragmented parts of the Sonship back into our
Self. We are acknowledging that they are not separate, as they appear to be,
but actually part of our being. Each miracle we offer helps reconstitute the
Son of God.

In reality of course, the Son is eternally one; there is no need to
reconstitute what is already whole. What we are is not affected by our
thoughts. The reality of our being remains inviolate (1:4). But what we
"look upon," what we perceive, is the direct result of our thoughts (1:5).

	Therefore, my Father, I would turn to You.
	Only Your memory will set me free.	(1:6-7)

Today, Father, heal my thoughts. "Straighten my mind" (W-pII.347.1:2). I
want the memory of God to return to my mind, and "only my forgiveness
teaches me to let Your memory return to me, and give it to the world in
thankfulness" (1:8). To have the memory of God return, I must forgive. I
must offer miracles to everyone and everything.

As I remember God (through my forgiveness), "His Son will be restored to us
in the reality of Love" (2:2). There is the thought again that forgiveness
"restores" the Son, rejoining the separated fragments by an acknowledgment
of love and unity.

May we watch today for opportunities to offer miracles.

WHAT IS A MIRACLE?

Part 10: W-pII.13.5:4

As we open our lives to miracles, the world is transformed. 

	And everywhere the signs of life spring up, to show
	that what is born can never die, for what has life
	has immortality.	(5:4) 

Miracles demonstrate immortality. Not immortality of the body, but
immortality of love, which is what we are ("Teach only love, for that is
what you are" [T-6.I.13:2]; "Only the eternal can be loved, for love does
not die" [T-10.V.9:1]). It is the immortality of thought, and the Course
also teaches that we are the eternal Thought of God, unchangeable. The
Course asserts boldly that there is no death, that life and immortality are
synonymous ("what has life has immortality"). By that logic, then, the body
must not have life, because it is not immortal, and so the Course teaches:
"It [the body] is not born and does not die" (T-28.VI.2:4). "The body
neither lives nor dies, because it cannot contain you who are life"
(T-6.V(A)1:4).

Miracles show us that we are not bodies, that mind is stronger than or
primary to the body: 

	If the mind can heal the body, but the body cannot
	heal the mind, then the mind must be stronger than
	the body. Every miracle demonstrates this.
	(T-6.V(A).2:6-7)

It shows us that what we are-mind, thought, idea, love-has life and is
immortal.