Snowflakes in summer

One summer some years ago, while living in the south of England, we witnessed an unusual phenomenon. In the middle of a cold July day, it started to snow. The snow lay on the ground, a thin layer of white, until the clouds parted and the sun shone through. Then the snowflakes melted, the ground dried, and it was as though they had never been.

How often we wish our troubles could melt away as easily as those snowflakes! About two thousand years ago a great number of people found their illnesses quickly healed by Christ Jesus. He spent three years comforting, guiding, and healing those in and around his home region of Galilee. Through his clear perception of what was true of God and man, leprosy faded, paralysis disappeared , and blindness was cured. He taught his listeners, ''If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'' n1

n1 John 8:31, 32.

What is this truth of which Jesus spoke? As the Son of God, he understood man to be made in God's likeness, as the first chapter of the Bible describes him. Jesus' spiritual perception, coupled with his immeasurable love, touched and healed those whom others saw as desperately sick and dying mortals. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: ''Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.'' n2

n2 Science and Health, pp. 476-477.

Mrs. Eddy discovered, in the inspired message of the Bible, a divine law of health and harmony, more powerful than any disease. When this universal divine law is acknowledged, applied, and adhered to, it operates through the eternal power of Christ, Truth, to change our concept of man - uplift it from the belief that man is a mortal, often sick or suffering, to a realization of his glorious spiritual perfection in the image and likeness of God. Our experience then improves as this change of thought has a purifying effect on the body. Mrs. Eddy writes: ''Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth.'' n3

n3 Ibid., P. 162.

A friend had an experience that proved this. One day she noticed on her arms an unsightly skin disease, which rapidly spread to the rest of her body. Here was an opportunity to witness the healing power of the ''sunlight of Truth.'' Over the next few days this Christian Scientist consistently claimed man's likeness to God. As she prayed, she tried not to be frightened by the picture the body was presenting, endeavoring to hold firmly to the concept of perfection she knew to be true. She reasoned that God, the Father of all, creates only perfection and maintains His spiritual universe in purity and loveliness. This includes man. God is the only power, so in absolute truth there is no evil power to create disease, ugliness, or fear. In a very short time the disfiguring blotches began to fade, and they soon disappeared altogether.

No matter how real the sickness and sorrows of mankind may seem, they are false beliefs that can be changed by the radiant truth of spiritual being. Then, like snowflakes in summer, they not only melt but disappear entirely, leaving no evidence that they ever were. DAILY BIBLE VERSE I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord. Jeremiah 30:17