Seeing What God Made

'GOD don't make no junk!'' That was a popular phrase a few years ago. And it's true, God, who is good, doesn't make anything unlike Himself. This simple fact is profound enough to change our lives, when we understand what it means!

God is Love. His nature must be reflected in His creation. This new way of seeing what is really there-the spiritual universe of God's creating-radically changes our experience.

I once took a job that required me to work closely with someone who often found fault with me. This went on for months, and then the strain between us became so great that I knew I needed to do more than tolerate her behavior. I needed to pray.

Matters came to a head when, after a distressing exchange, she was no longer speaking to me, although we needed to communicate to get our work done. I prayed earnestly to see more clearly what God knows about His creation. Later, while driving, I suddenly thought, ''What I'm seeing is not what God made.'' I was seeing a discontented, negative mortal, but that was not God's likeness.

I had learned from the Bible that God made man in His own image. Genesis tells us, ''God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good'' (1:31). And the Gospel of John assures us, ''All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made'' (1:3). These ideas are more than just an interesting philosophy. The Bible describes people whose lives were based on these premises. They lived lives of dominion and love. Christ Jesus, of course, is the best example of godly living the world has ever seen.

I saw that I had to correct my view that this woman's behavior resulted from a lifetime of sad experiences. The child of God-which includes her and me and everyone-is always satisfied and capable. In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: ''The perfect Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imperfect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of which the wise man said, 'All is vanity' '' (p. 239).

My sympathy and attempts to be understanding and tolerant were replaced with a new appreciation of what was good about my co-worker. The relationship soon began to improve and before long we became friends and willing co-workers.

Some years later I had occasion to apply this lesson again. My young son came home and told me he had forgotten his new watch at school. The secretary had put it in the lost-and-found box. When my son went to claim it, it was gone. After confirming this with a telephone call, in which the secretary was both unhelpful and flippant, I was angry. I saw her as utterly incompetent. The force of my anger surprised me. I was so uncomfortable, I just reached out to God, praying, ''Forgive me for this anger, and show me how to think about this.'' Right away came the thought ''What you are seeing is not what God made.''

I felt the anger drain away as I remembered the earlier incident with my co-worker. I thought, ''God didn't make an incompetent woman. He didn't make an angry woman. And He didn't make a forgetful child or a dishonest child. What God made was competent, satisfied, trustworthy, honest man.'' Again a sentence from Science and Health helped me to correct my thinking: ''Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science'' (p. 475). I really made an effort to understand this perfect, spiritual man of God's making.

Each time I thought about the watch, I reaffirmed what God created man to be and asserted that I knew and believed only in the man of God's creating. One day as I was going to pick up my son, I felt absolutely certain that only competent, honest, trustworthy, God-created man is real. The principal met me at the door and said, ''Good news! I have your son's watch.'' I was so grateful!

We each prove in these everyday ways that our creator is indeed good, and that all that He makes reflects His goodness. As we fearlessly see what God makes, our experience will conform more and more to beauty and dominion.