On my first visit to the Great Barrier Reef, located just off the northeast coast of Australia, I saw all I could fleetingly through the glass bottom of a small tourist boat. This had one effect—I was determined to see more. On a return visit later, and with the right equipment, I was able to dive below the surface and explore everything where it was all happening. At each crevice new grandeur was presented in color, beauty, rhythmic order, all conforming to a kind of symphonic precision.
Of course, I saw only an improved view of the natural phenomena, so why make a fuss? Well, the experience proved of value because of the lesson learned about the need to plunge deeper than surface level to find more. Christian Science healing is based on seeing through the physical surface of things, not to an improved state of matter but to the spiritual reality of things eternally established everywhere.
In this Science we learn that matter has only the substance of belief—that it is solid only as mental conviction. We break through its illusive gamut in the degree of our awareness of true being, man's spiritual perfection as the idea of God. This awareness is not a personal possession. It is the discernment, here in human consciousness, of God's universal expression, the healing Christ. Mrs. Eddy explains in these words: "This practical Christian Science is the divine Mind, the incorporeal Truth and Love, shining through the mists of materiality and melting away the shadows called sin, disease, and death." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 205.
