How can you who are so holy suffer?  All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing.  I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had.  I have purified them of their errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance.  They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt.  They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal.  You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself.  You go with my blessing and for my blessing. Hold it and share it that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it.  We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet children are His blessed Sons.  The Thoughts of God are with you. A Course in Miracles

I came across A Course in Miracles in the early 90’s. I was always poking around the spiritual section in bookstores and that particular day when I pulled a plain blue book off the shelf it fell open at the Introduction. In bold italic type I read, “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.” At the same that I didn’t quite understand what that meant, I also knew that it was perfectly true.

It was not necessary to read any further. I bought the book, brought it home and began reading. Since then I have probably reread it five or six times, not to count the numerous times I have just picked it up for comfort or inspiration.

A Course in Miracles is one of my ‘desert island’ books right up there beside The Bible, Tao te Ching, Autobiography of a Yogi, and a handful of others. Years ago my personal spiritual library numbered in the hundreds; now there are perhaps 15 or 20 books. I rarely buy any new ones; everything true or important has already been addressed in my small selection.

The except from A Course which I have included above is one of the more beautiful of the many beautiful passages in the book. The speaker is Christ – whether you want to believe that literally or figuratively does not matter. I think the truth of what is being said is irrefutable.

When my son Rob was in the hospital dying I read this passage over and over again. I particularly found great comfort in being reminded that all loving thoughts and actions are eternal and beyond the reach of death. All of our mistakes or errors, that some call sins, are what is left behind and forgotten. When the moment came that he left us, I felt a great peace in my heart and I knew he was in God’s arms.

God wears many faces but all of his teachers have a similar message and that is we are the beloved children of a loving Father. That is all that any of us really wants to truly believe. That we are not alone, we have not been abandoned in this beautiful but sometimes cruel world, that our Father is walking beside us and behind us and above us and beneath us. In fact, He is within us and we are within Him – eternally.