Article March 16, 1912 Issue

TRANSFORMATION

LAURA BLANDFORD JENNINGS.

Mrs. Eddy defines miracle as follows: "That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science" (Science and Health, p. 591). The other day I beheld what was to me a miracle. As we were seated under a tree near a country roadside, we saw what appeared to be a bug crawling toward us. I picked it up and discovered that it was a moth, evidently just out of the cocoon, for it had only the tiniest suggestion of wings. I put it on a fence-post, and in two or three minutes I looked at it again. Its wings were noticeably larger, while its body was much smaller. We watched it, then, as it surely and more and more rapidly developed not only wings much larger than the body had ever been, but double wings; and then, growing in size and beauty with the wings, beautiful spots of color.

To me this was indeed a parable and a prophecy, and there came a deep sense of gratitude that I had even a small degree of understanding of Christian Science, that Science "with which can be discerned the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold" (Science and Health, p. 585); for there were many lessons to be learned from this phenomenon as explained in Science. The awkward, homely bug typified that state of mortal mind which many of us bring to Science when we first seek its aid, and which is little more than a dissatisfaction with present conditions.

But the activity of thought which compels us to leave the cocoon of material belief,—slight and selfish though it may be, brings about the attitude of mind which exclaims, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief;" and our wings of spiritual sense straightway begin to unfold. They at first seem feeble, almost useless, but they at least teach us the reality of wings, and so we begin to do our first work in Science. This is usually a simple letting in of the sunshine of Truth, and the atmosphere of Spirit, of which we begin to be conscious, develops our latent abilities. Thus we learn the truth of the statement in Science and Health (p. 261): "Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight."

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