A winding mountain road in the Sierra Nevada of California, flanked by great pines and leading to our cabin, proved instrumental in helping me to demonstrate a metaphysical truth.
At first, whenever I left the cabin, I would invariably turn in the wrong direction to get to the nearest town. I would think, "The town is in this direction, I just know it is." But of course it never was! Not until reason overcame illusion did I turn in the right direction. That direction still seems wrong to me, but I am no longer fooled by appearances. I know the way now, because I have proved it many times.
Certainly humanity is continually being tempted to trust in physical sense, to watch matter for some indication of the next step to take. But matter, alias mortal mind, is never dependable, whether its signs appear to be good or bad. If one is not alert to the suggestions of this carnal mind, he may be temporarily blinded to God's tender, unfailing direction: "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."Isa. 30:21.
We all reach some point in our experience when we must turn, with unwavering trust, to the Father "who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."Ps. 103:3. And sometimes this must be done in the face of deep despair, when the way seems devoid of human comfort, when—one by one—all material supports have failed.
For me, this time of turning with all my heart to God came about two years ago, when we lost one of our daughters in a car accident. My world turned to ashes. At first I could not even pray— indeed, for a short while I had no desire to. I felt betrayed by the very God to whom I had always looked in time of need, and by whom those needs had always been taken care of.
Although I certainly could not see it at the time, there would come from this experience the dawning of a deeper spiritual sense than I had ever known before. When all the signposts of earth point in the wrong direction, one is finally forced to look up, away from matter with its deceptions and its lies. Then, and only then, are we completely ready to let the messages of heavenly comfort into consciousness.
In Science and Health by our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, we read: "The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for heaven."Science and Health, p. 57.
Even the master Christian, Christ Jesus, had to face betrayal and disillusionment as, one by one, he left behind all material supports, all personal comfort. But the agonies of the crucifixion led to the glories of the resurrection. All desires to turn to matter for solace were exchanged for the joyous realization that he was then, had always been, and would forever be with his Father.
It is vitally important, in seeking the path "from sense to Soul,"See Christian Science Hymnal, No. 64. that spiritual sense be increasingly developed. This is done by consistently denying the limiting claims of physicality and replacing each one with the boundless facts of Spirit. It's often necessary to specifically replace each counterfeit claim of mortal mind with its counter fact. Although the finite senses may be screaming otherwise, never doubt that there is a counter fact and that it is there for you to grasp and make your own.
The claims of separation and loss must be exposed as nothing by the great fact of God's continuous, loving care for His ideas—a care that was there before the dream of mortal existence began and that extends throughout all eternity. The lying suggestion of our being frail mortals, either parents or children, who live always on the brink of disaster, must be routed by an ever-growing conviction that God, as Father-Mother, needs no help in maintaining His spiritual creation. Because God is omnipotent Life and because we are the very expression of that Life, this is so. Science and Health, the Christian Science textbook, reminds us, "The facts of divine Science should be admitted,—although the evidence as to these facts is not supported by evil, by matter, or by material sense,—because the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense."Science and Health, p. 471.
The deep peace that begins to steal into consciousness when one "ceases to sigh over the world" cannot be destroyed by matter, because it is not based on matter. This peace is based on our gaining at least a glimpse of the new heaven and new earth, which St. John saw through spiritual sense while he was in exile on the island of Patmos.
I shall ever be grateful for the lesson of the mountain road. Just as surely as I came to recognize the right way to turn, even though the physical senses seemed to indicate otherwise, so we can all come to trust God's comfort, guidance, and help. This trust involves spiritual sense, not material. And spiritual sense is as dependable as our God, who is Principle; as comforting as our God, who is Love; as unending as our God, who is eternal Life.
