Article December 8, 1945 Issue

"What do I see?"

AILEEN F. WAVRO

One day, while busily playing on the floor, Harold bumped into a hot kerosene heater and badly burned his hand. Upon hearing him scream, his mother came and sat down beside him. She proposed that they go over together some of the things that Harold had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School. Harold loved "Feed My Sheep" and "Mother's Evening Prayer," two well-known hymns by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and he immediately joined his mother in singing the familiar words. Then they said the Lord's Prayer and the Daily Prayer which is found in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII. Sect. 4), also by Mrs. Eddy, and followed this with the first and second commandments. By that time, the boy had completely forgotten the accident and went back to his play.

During the next few days, each time the mother had occasion to clean the hand, she did so thoroughly examining it carefully to see if it were healing, and each time there seemed to be little improvement. It was with amazement, therefore, that she heard Harold telling one of his friends that he had burned his hand several days before but that God had healed it at once; and by way of proof the child thrust out the hand for his friend to see which apparently satisfied both of them.

What did Harold see that his mother did not see? On page 476 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, we read these words: "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." The child had been seeing the perfect man which Jesus beheld; therefore to him the healing had been instantaneous. But the mother had been looking to matter to tell her about the condition of her child. She had been clinging to material evidence instead of turning from it and seeing only God's likeness. She had been seeing the result of her own wrong image in thought. So the mother asked Harold to help her to be more alert to see only the true. The Bible tells us that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

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