I used to go to a pond in the hills of New Hampshire. It was a place of solitude, where I could kayak and swim. Near the little natural beach where I parked, some rounded granite boulders in the shallow water jutted up over the waterline to about a foot in height.
One day when there was no wind, and the air and water were very, very still, the reflection of the boulders in the water presented an unforgettable sight. The reflection was so clear and the water’s surface so still that I could not see the distinction between the boulders and their reflection. One particular boulder was dome-shaped on the top and gave the impression of a complete egg-shaped boulder suspended in space. It was such a perfect illustration of what a reflection is that it made an indelible impression on me, and I can still recollect that picture today, a dozen or so years later.
That visual experience has given me a point of reference in my study and application of Christian Science. To see so vividly that whatever does the reflecting looks no different from the object it reflects uplifts my thought when I need a better sense of how God, the one original perfect, flawless Supreme Creator, and man and the universe, as His likeness, or perfect reflection, interrelate. In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy often writes on the subject of reflection: “Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God” (pp. 515–516).
