Looking for Something?

Not long ago, I was on a plane. As we took off from the big airport that's about twenty-five miles from my home, and started climbing, I began looking for landmarks I knew.

At first I was lost. But then I found a highway I recognized. From following it, I found other familiar roads. A lake. A mall. Soon I was familiar with the land below, even though it was a large tangle of highways, buildings, and factories. And I was really surprised when I was able to pick out the apartment building where I live, and then the exact corner where my bedroom is. I bet we were over 10,000 feet in the air, and it was just a speck, but by then it was unmistakable to me.

There are plenty of times when trying to find your way seems like trying to find a single building in a sea of urban sprawl. You just feel lost. But that experience in the air reminded me of the best way I have found to get my bearings in life. It involves knowing God.

Christian Science is all about knowing God. In a much more important way than going up in a plane gives visual perspective, Christian Science gives the perspective that God is controlling your life. The woman who discovered that there is a Science of God that we can know, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote a book to explain her discovery, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She didn't just think up what she wrote. She found this Science by studying the Bible.

You may not hear people talking about God all the time, but I do believe sincerely that He can and does heal us and help us find the way in life. The Bible says, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: . . . thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all" (I Chronicles 29:11). For the person who wrote that, greatness, power, glory, victory, and majesty were probably the most excellent qualities imaginable. So you can think of God as creating you that way, too -- with the most excellent qualities imaginable. In a word, perfect.

What Science and Health helps do is lift you up to the most important view of all -- the view God has of His creation, which includes you. When a person gains this view, all the areas of his or her life are improved, and good comes. God sees things only one way: the way He made them and maintains them. Christ Jesus, who knew God so well because he was the Son of God, was able to transform people's lives because of what he knew. You can read in Science and Health, "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" (pp. 476-477). Jesus saw people as God sees them -- full of good. Perfect. Sometimes the people Jesus healed were physically sick. Sometimes their lives were in ruin, and he saved them. Healing came, and this proved that how Jesus saw -- how he understood things to be -- is powerful. Jesus saw things the way God sees them.

A helpful question you can ask yourself in a rotten situation is this: "How does God see me now?" Reading Science and Health helps the answers come more easily. If you feel sick, the only answer to that question is still that God sees you the way He made you -- perfect. Or if you are lost in doubt about how you can get through the day, you will find you still can rightfully say, "God sees me as having purpose and direction because He gave them to me Himself." And if you long for love, you will come to know that you have it, because you have God, and God is Love.

The facts contained in Science and Health lift you up to know the truth, and you can trust them. Because they have the power of God behind them, understanding them can improve your life and show it to be as perfect as He made it.

Sometimes I've had some problem and everything has seemed dark and confused. Then, after really trying to understand how God sees me, I have felt His power (and what a great feeling that is!). Then healing has come, often in the form of a clear idea about what I should do or say. And I have seen once again that knowing God covers everything, more completely than the sunlight covers the earth on a cloudless day.