This poem offers quick snapshots, as it were, of the process of learning in Christian Science.
If the lighting and framing are somewhat unusual, the portrait is nevertheless genuine and sincere in its informality. It shows something of how a Christian Scientist feels about spiritual education—and of how being "taught of God" extends not just over a lifetime but includes deep lessons for eternity.
Sunday School
The just-turned three-year-old, first time in Sunday School,
Sits in a tiny chair, crying, crying.
Mother, safely in church, hears not a note. The teacher takes the child in her arms,
Tells her how much God loves her,
Remembering, "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord; And great shall be the peace of thy children." Isa. 54:13.
The crying stops. Learning has begun.
Twenty years later, Christian Science class instruction
How we studied!
We were like builders, sinking foundations
Deep down into rock. Finding a basis for living and giving.
During those days of class instruction
Came clearer, brighter views of Life as God, and man as His image.
We left wiser, stronger:
Like the disciples, we went out into the world
Ready to give.
Church work—what an education!
Learning to love each one;
Learning from ministering to others—seeing that circle of faces,
God's children, pure and free, blessed, not disadvantaged.
Trying, as Reader, to be a clear transparency
For Love's healing messages.
Knowing that truth, not closed in by doors or distance,
Goes out to bless congregation, community, the world.
Finding that Church is more than walls and colored windows:
Its works of Love, dissolving fear and doubt,
Its truth, applied, healing and re-forming.
Bringing gifts of gratitude and love each Wednesday.
Coming to pray, to listen, not to be seen or to chatter ...
Reaching out ... sharing a lecture,
Praying in the Reading Room for the community
And seeing a stranger walk in.
Learning humility: understanding that "Willingness to become as a little child
And to leave the old for the new,
Renders thought receptive of the advanced idea." Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 323.
Landmarks of progress that stretch on through years.
Healing
"We learn from every healing that we have,"
A Christian Science practitioner once told me.
We learn that evil has no power,
No place at all in God's great universe.
His gentle greatness fills all space,
Eliminates all fear. His is the power that heals,
His is the glory.
There was a summer night not long ago:
My poisoned arm seemed painful;
Sleepless, I turned to God in simple prayer,
"Father, I know You love me. Let me feel that love,
I love You so."
At last sleep came.
How could the poison stay where Love prevailed?
When morning dawned, the pain had gone;
Instead, healing, awareness of God's presence, and a special peace.
Practicing the truth
So many lessons learned from practicing the truth.
First, that a person doesn't heal, the Father does.
Practitioner and patient bearing witness to His grand creation,
Perfect, spiritual, and pure.
Turning to God, listening, listening,
Marveling at the light the healings bring,
A higher view of love.
Learning the need to sharpen our expectancy,
Then, as the healings come,
Remembering to be grateful.
Practitioner and patient asking,
"What have we really learned from this experience?"
And growing on from there.
Learning about Christian Science
Learning from the great and only Teacher
Learning lessons that go on throughout eternity
As we graduate with joy.
