Have you ever admired the lovely, slender crescent moon, brilliant in the sky? And yet is there really such a thing? In spite of the fact that the naked eye often sees only a partial, incomplete moon, the moon is complete and whole at all times. This is one more phenomenon which illustrates the incomplete testimony of the material senses.
In Christian Science there is a lesson to be learned from this example, namely that an incomplete experience is never a fact, but only an appearance. As the light, or intelligence, in our consciousness increases, as understanding replaces superstition, as wisdom destroys ignorance, we begin to see creation as it is: the expression of the one infinite Being, called God, or creator. In spite of any human appearance of lack or incompleteness, Life is ever present in its fullness, to be discerned and to be demonstrated. Truth, reality, is intact, complete, unchanged "yesterday, and to day, and for ever" (Hebr. 13:8). No amount of negative thinking, such as hate, fear, envy, lust, can change Truth one iota. And here is another point, sometimes overlooked, that no amount of prayer, whether it be petition or affirmation, can change Truth one iota. Truth is.
Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 2), "Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it." This corroborates one of the basic truths of creation set forth in the Bible in the Book of Ecclesiastes (3: 14), "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it."
When we are tempted to believe that our human experience is like a jigsaw puzzle with few or many pieces missing, we can gain inspiration and healing by considering the intactness of man at all times. On page 302 of Science and Health we find this further statement: "Principle is not to be found in fragmentary ideas."
In working with children, we generally believe that we are dealing with individuals who are not fully developed. Many of the problems connected with childhood, adolescence, and even with adulthood arise from a sense of immaturity. In working out any such problems, we always start in Christian Science from the basis of perfect God as the one creator and perfect man as the effect. It follows then that man partakes of or reflects the intelligence, stability, poise, strength, and purity of God.
Recently one of the citations from Science and Health in the Lesson-Sermon, found in the Christian Science Quarterly, was the following from page 282: "The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight line." One evening a Christian Science practitioner received a call from a mother whose young daughter was ill with a malady that seemed very prevalent and is generally associated with children. A careful, prayerful contemplation of this passage brought clearly to the practitioner's thought that the only man there is, the image and likeness of God, must of necessity be Godlike, spiritual, whole, untouched in any way by material beliefs, human opinions, or the classifications of medical theories.
She earnestly declared that man's life is symbolized by the sphere described by Mrs. Eddy as immortal, without beginning or end. Man cannot, then, she reasoned, manifest at any time a straight line of finite, limited experience. The child improved immediately, slept soundly, and awoke in the morning her happy, health) self.
Here is definite proof of the value of maintaining the right view of man, of seeing him as he is.
Is not this concept of reality what the Master, Christ Jesus, taught? He always repudiated material sense testimony. A thoughtful study of his healings shows that he was never impressed by material appearances. Judging entirely from his spiritual understanding of creation as the work oi God, always perfect and whole, Jesus chided those who believed in delay or postponement. He said (John 4:35), "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you. Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."
Christian Science enables each one to prove that fulfillment is now.
