It was supposed to be one of those simple drives into town—to drop off a package for mailing, pick up a loaf of bread, leave a bag of gently used clothes in a donation box.
I’ve learned, however, as a student of Christian Science, that even these so-called mundane tasks are often opportunities to learn more about one’s relationship to God—more about the healing nature of divine Love. And this little errand run was no exception. Not in a big, dramatic way, but in a significant way.
Each errand was actually fun, and harmonious. The final one was the clothing drop-off. As I put my bag in the donation bin, the metal top of the box slipped and came down hard on the fingertips of one hand. It hurt a lot.
I resisted the temptation to look at my hand, knowing that wasn’t going to help or heal the situation.
So I turned in prayer to God, whose goodness is ever present. I declared the Christianly scientific fact that God didn’t create and doesn’t allow accidents of any kind. Christian Science teaches that God is Spirit and that man (a generic term referring to the true nature of all of us) is the reflection of God, and is therefore spiritual, not material and vulnerable to injury. The Discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote unequivocally, “Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 424).
As I drove home, my hand still hurt, and I kept getting the suggestion to look at it. This seemed utterly ridiculous for two reasons: First of all, I was driving, and it was best to keep my eyes on the road; second, looking at my hand wouldn’t make a difference, even physically. It might just make me more concerned. And yet the thought persisted.
I repeatedly resisted the temptation, knowing that looking at my hand wasn’t going to help or heal the situation. I remembered another statement from Science and Health: “Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (p. 261).
“Made you look!” kids say, and that is what the material senses cause us to do unless we are alert.
Christ Jesus, the master Christian, once asked a crowd regarding John the Baptist, “What went ye out for to see?” (Matthew 11:8). I applied that question to myself in this situation. What am I looking at? What am I looking for? Wouldn’t it be better to keep my eyes on the road and my thought on the spiritual facts of being? So that’s what I did, all the way home. It was almost laughable how aggressive the suggestion was for me to look. My fingers still hurt, but I just kept driving and holding thought to God and His love.
A third statement from Science and Health bolstered my resolve. It says, “We must look deep into realism instead of accepting only the outward sense of things” (p. 129). To look at my hand to see if it was injured or how badly it was hurt didn’t align with this spiritual instruction. So I looked deeply into realism instead, which to me meant continuing to affirm mentally and persistently that God made man—including me—spiritual, complete, and perfect. Unharmed. Invulnerable.
I got home and started dinner preparations. At some point my hand stopped hurting. And later in the evening I did look at my hands and they were untouched, unmarred, just fine.
There’s a silly thing that kids sometimes say after tempting each other to believe something that isn’t true. “Made you look!” they say, and that is what the material senses cause us to do unless we are alert. They would seem to try to “make us look,” either mentally or physically, at a problem, something that is not actually valid or true. And looking can have the effect of making a problem seem more real, more intimidating. How important, then, for us to look at the things of Spirit, to keep thought aligned with God, good, with what is real.
We live in a mental realm, and our thinking does affect and influence our experience. I’m so glad I had a quick healing and relief from pain. But even more than that, I’m grateful for the lesson: Don’t look! Or rather: Take a good look at what is good.
