Before I found Christian Science, a growth appeared on my right ear, and I had it removed through surgery. It was not long before the growth reappeared. It grew larger and at times became alarming. I realized that it was time for me to do something about it. The suggestion that I again try surgery occurred to me, but that suggestion was frightening. I did not want a medical diagnosis, because I feared what it might disclose.
At this point I asked for help from a Christian Science practitioner. I explained to her that the growth itself did not bother me nearly so much as what I thought others saw and thought. She said to me, "You must know that you are 'hid with Christ in God.'"
Her meaning became clear to me when I read in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 325): "In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: 'When Christ, who is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also appear [be manifested] with him in glory.' When spiritual being is understood in all its perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found in God's image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic words is this: Then shall man be found, in His likeness, perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, 'hid with Christ in God,'—with Truth in divine Love, where human sense hath not seen man." The unfoldment which came to me in the repeated pondering of that statement was: "All that man can know of man or see in man is what God knows and sees. That is perfection." That was the beginning of the healing of the growth on my ear.
