One day several years ago I noticed that something was amiss with my cat’s mouth. When I took the cat, Beau, for a dental visit, the veterinarian informed me that Beau had a terminal mouth tumor. As she continued with a brief prognosis, which gave Beau two to four weeks at the most to live, I vehemently, but silently, exclaimed, “No!” I was prayerfully rebutting the prognosis, knowing from experience that Christian Science can heal challenges of all kinds.
After I arrived home, I called my daughter. The first words she uttered, which echoed my own prayers, were “It’s a lie.” She also shared that that morning she had been praying with an article titled “A Timely Issue” written by Mary Baker Eddy. Part of it reads: “Materia medica says, ‘I can do no more. I have done all that can be done. There is nothing to build upon. There is no longer any reason for hope.’ Then metaphysics comes in, armed with the power of Spirit, not matter, takes up the case hopefully and builds on the stone that the builders have rejected, and is successful” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 5).
Yet even after considering these ideas, I still could not allay the intense fear I felt. I humbly asked our Father, God, what I needed to know to help lessen these very aggressive mental suggestions. Then the word time came to me. I said to myself, “That’s ‘mortal measurements’ (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 595).” Time, by virtue of its own definition, includes restriction. Hours, days, years—a beginning and an ending—finite, as contrasted with infinity. God is infinite and eternal. In the true universe, which is spiritual, time plays no part. God is timeless.
