Months ago, during a stretch when there was just one preschool child in my Sunday School class, I was aware that when we talked about healings, he would construct a long and very creative “healing,” usually involving dragons, dinosaurs, and other exotic animals (often with pointed horns). As the weeks went by, I gently talked to him about the difference between the truth and a story.
The more I thought about it, I realized how the difference between those two is fundamental to Christian Science practice. We separate the truth from the fictitious story, or lie. We recognize the forever truth of an infinite, all-loving God that directs and governs man as His spiritual idea and reject the lie of mortal mind’s hypnotic and often dramatic testimony of life in matter. As we continued our Sunday School conversation about what’s true and what’s a lie in the weeks that followed, I was grateful to know that underlying this activity was the essence of Mary Baker Eddy’s pointed question in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question” (p. 462).
One Sunday about a month later, something was different when class began. As my small friend shared a healing from the previous week, there were no cloak and dagger events, no dragons dangling him mercilessly from rooftops. This time, with wide-eyed wonder and absolute precision, he related a healing he’d had at preschool that week, where he was able to see a playmate’s constant teasing for what it was: a lie about him and his playmate. This led him, in his own sweet way, to express thanks for the truth of God’s presence right there on the school playground.
Driving home from church that day, I relished what had just unfolded. But suddenly a wider view opened up. Isn’t each one of us, so-called “adults” and “children” alike, continually needing to separate the lie (the “dragons” of sickness, broken relationships, etc.) from the truth of being? This isn’t an event reserved for childhood, but a moment-to-moment activity that each one of us can engage in, bringing thought into harmony with the infinite Mind that upholds us and identifies us.
So, it was a healing all the way around. For the Sunday School teacher and the student, participating together in this spiritual adventure, the truth continues to trump the lie at every turn.
