Years ago, I wore glasses because I had vision problems, including depth perception, tunnel vision, and crossed eyes. When I decided to treat this condition through Christian Science, I didn’t pray to make the material condition of my eyes better, but tried to better understand my spiritual sense of vision and its purpose.
In Genesis, we read, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion … ” (Genesis 1:26). I knew through my study of Christian Science that God is incorporeal, Spirit. And if God has no body, is not anthropomorphic, then I, as His image, am not made to reflect physical attributes, but spiritual attributes. That statement from Genesis is presenting each of us as spiritual and having a purpose that is Godlike and holy. Our purpose is to reflect God.
I focused my prayer by studying Mary Baker Eddy’s description of eyes: “Spiritual discernment,—not material but mental” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 586). Pondering this definition lifted my thought from seeing vision as based in matter, to seeing the true spiritual meaning and purpose of vision—discernment.
