A PET STORE IN OUR TOWN specializes in reptiles. I have to admit that I never rush in to see these creatures and inevitably I notice people staying waaaaay back as they pass the cages. Why? It's only logical that we shouldn't be afraid of something that's securely caged. As Mary Baker Eddy noted in Science and Health, "Gazing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, should not terrify a man" (p. 380). Yet, somehow, even as we keep an eye on a feared object, we find ourselves often stepping back.
A reptile in a secured tank has no more power to touch or harm someone than a well-chained lion. So the fear one experiences must be caused by how one thinks about the creature, not because of any real danger. As we get a better understanding that false concepts are simply misconceptions and not facts, we can overcome being fooled or frightened by them.
In Christian Science we learn that diseases, injuries, poverty, loss—in fact, anything unlike God—have no fundamental reality. Anything that is not good is not created by God and is therefore a misperception of reality. And because we can view anything bad in our experience—in whatever form or condition it appears—as a misperception, we don't need to step back from it, fearing what we think it might do to us.
