Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Suns and planets teach grand lessons” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 240). I became interested in astronomy at a very early age. But I also attended Christian Science Sunday School. At the closing of every Sunday School session, the Superintendent would read “the scientific statement of being,” a portion of which includes, “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all” (Science and Health, p. 468). So I wondered, how could suns and planets teach grand lessons, if they are material?
My answer came from something Christ Jesus taught, and also from something Mrs. Eddy wrote about him. In teaching about God’s supply, Jesus said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matt. 6:28, 29). So, we can actually learn something from the lilies—if we think spiritually about what they might be teaching us. Interesting.
Also, Eddy wrote, “Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause” (Science and Health, p. 313). So, maybe that was part of what Jesus was teaching us to do—to see things
spiritually.
