During a visit to a museum of natural history a student of Christian Science became much interested in an exhibit of a square inch of river water which, when viewed through a glass, and magnified many times, displayed a veritable fairyland of beauty. Marvelous forms and shapes expressed symmetry, delicacy, balance, and grace. Prismatic colors gleamed from spirals, spheres, and flowerlike formations; and strange creatures were at home in their native habitat. Surrounding us on all sides are wonderlands of beauty and interest which are invisible to us because limited perception can take in only a small fraction of what is known as the material realm.
The student was emphatically reminded of how impossible it is for physical sense to cognize and understand the glorious perfection of God's infinite, spiritual creation spoken of by Mrs. Eddy, in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 513), as "the teeming universe of Mind," which is the perpetual home of the child of God. To physical sense the world may appear insecure and even perilous; but spiritual sense testifies to a creation which is kind, lovely, and wholly satisfying. Spiritual sense is unrestricted in its ability to perceive and comprehend the divine facts of the true man and the real universe.
This lesson was of great help at a time when general belief argued the presence of stagnation and inactivity. Realizing that spiritual understanding alone could reveal her true environment, the student declared that because God, divine Mind, is All-in-all, as a child of God she was surrounded by active, purposeful, and productive ideas. She knew that man as the reflection of God is the constant recipient of right ideas, the unceasing expression of right activity. She then gave thanks to God for His creation, which is teeming with beautiful, constructive, and eternal expressions of His love and care for man; and also for man's spiritual capacity to recognize and enjoy this true state of being. Thereby she gained a sense of the immensity and energy of present good. This glimpse of spiritual reality not only led her directly into activities of good, but also enabled her to understand in some measure the experience of our Leader, of which she writes in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 27), "The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh universe—old to God, but new to His 'little one.' "
