Recently, on one of my regular commutes, I saw a tall building in the distance, and it seemed that a huge cloud was sitting on the top floor like a hat. However, as I approached and passed in front of it, I saw that was merely an optical illusion, for the cloud was actually very far away. I now had a clearer perspective of the building, which stood so magnificently.
This made me think about our daily experiences. At times we may feel as if we have a great mental cloud hanging over us, preventing us from seeing clearly or from feeling the sunlight of Truth and Life, God, that is always shining. We may have the impression that this great cloud—disappointment, sadness, loneliness, illness, discouragement, etc.—is hovering over us as if it were our reality. We believe that the situation that overwhelms us is a real part of our experience.
But in reality, we are not hostages to the deceptions of a material mentality which, like the cloud, prevent us from seeing the sun. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down” (p. 301).
