Day 105: God's peace and joy are mine.

God's peace and joy are mine.

Here is the first paragraph in A Course in Miracles describing today's lesson:

God's peace and joy are yours.  Today we will accept them, knowing they belong to us.  And we will try to understand these gifts increase as we receive them.  They are not like to the gifts the world can give, in which the giver loses as he gives the gift; the taker is the richer by his loss.  Such are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt.  The truly given gift entails no loss.  It is impossible that one can gain because another loses.  This implies a limit and an insufficiency.

I would like to elaborate on the notion that gifts of Joy and Peace - and really any gift equatable with Love - are only increased in measure by both the person giving and the person receiving.  This is true by the nature of Love, which is God.  We even have physical proof that this is so, as our universe is steadily expanding.  God encompasses All, including the far-reaching cosmos.  And the extension of God is manifested physically in the expansion of our universe.

When you feel joyous, and you bring joy to another, are you not happier as a result?  You haven't given anything away.  You have simply shared the greatest of gifts God has bestowed upon you and magnified that gift by including your Brother or Sister.

Another way to look at it is to remember that we are each a reflection of one another.  As such, each of us is a reflection of God Himself.  Every gift given by God is a gift of Light.  When a light meets its reflection - when it is held up to a mirror - its brightness doubles.  We, as Beings of Light and reflections of one another, are no different.  If we shine our light upon another by sharing our gifts of Joy and Peace, they will be mirrored right back to us, and we will see the sacred place where we share our light grow brighter.

To shine one's light upon another is to forgive.  In the meditation practices for today's lesson, we make the connection between Forgiveness and Joy.  The Course instructs us to recite the following as we think of each of our supposed "enemies" in need of our forgiveness:

My brother, peace and joy I offer you,
That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.

In offering Peace and Joy to our "enemies" and recognizing them as our Brothers and Sisters (our fellow Children of God) we are forgiving them.  We are opening ourselves up to be available to God's Holy Gifts, which we, at the moment of forgiveness, have already received.  If we hadn't, we would be unable to share them with another.  This is the method by which we become the Vessel for God's Love and Light.

As we go about our day today, let us remember that what is God's is also ours.  He wishes us only Love - It is all He can offer, for it is all He is.  Let us accept the Love He gives us in all the miraculous forms it takes - Joy, Peace and Forgiveness are but a few of Love's Holy Virtues.  As we give them freely to one another, so shall we too bask in their Glorious Light.

Until tomorrow,
Journeyman