WHEN I AM TEACHING my high school (and older) Sunday School students about reliance on God for good in their lives, I mention the first chapter of Genesis, which describes God as good, and as creating man and woman equal and wholly good.
In fact, seeing creation as already perfect is the way Jesus healed, as Mary Baker Eddy explained in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man," she wrote, "who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick" (pp.476-477).
Jesus asked a man with a withered hand, whose story is related in three of the four Gospels, to stretch forth his hand. When was it made whole? If Jesus was beholding "the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals," then Jesus' view of the man was that his hand had never been withered, that it was already whole. And this view of the man — in his present state of perfection — was what brought about the healing.
Recently, I was able to demonstrate this kind of present spiritual wholeness in a similar, albeit not so dramatic, fashion. During a family reunion kickball game, I tripped on my way to first base and seriously injured (and possibly even broke) a couple of ribs. As was the case in the story of the man with the withered hand, I knew that I did not need to return to a perfect state of matter. I simply had to grasp the reality that I was already spiritual and perfect.
I called a Christian Science practitioner to pray with me, and he offered some very specific support. For instance, at one point while we were working together, an unusual — and seemingly unrelated — question popped up. I was asked about my political views. From previous discussions, the practitioner had perceived a mental battle I was having in this respect and knew that this wasn't helping my situation. So he pointed out what Mrs. Eddy had said about her own politics: "I have none, in reality, other than to help support a righteous government; to love God supremely, and my neighbor as myself" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p.276). I made the effort for this also to be my position. Not to let political opinions get in the way of my seeing anyone's perfection. And with this, I was also putting my own human will to the side so that I could be receptive to God, the divine Mind.
Another important area that the practitioner and I addressed was the issue of age. That just because I am older, this does not mean that healing should take longer. Again, I appealed to the spiritual truth that, as a perfect spiritual being, I wasn't made up of "old matter" —or matter of any age.
I was astounded at the quick progress I was making. Not that I was healed instantaneously. I wasn't. But ten days after the injury, I ran four miles and golfed 18 holes, and I've suffered no further effects of the accident.
Beyond my gratitude for the physical aspect of this healing, I was also glad to learn to not be so willful — politically and otherwise. To see that I can love everybody, regardless of differences of opinion. I feel like now I am taking more to heart Jesus' practice when he beheld "the perfect man."
FLUSHING, MICHIGAN, US
