LOOKING UP TO GOD
Christian Science teaches that the way for one to bring about and to maintain a happy and successful state of affairs in his human experience is first to look up to God, the true source of all good, for his help. The Psalmist declared (Ps. 5:3 ), "In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up."
One can find healing and courage, regardless of what his physical condition or circumstances may be, as he looks in the right direction, namely to God and to the spiritual facts of creation as taught in Christian Science. In Genesis (1: 26 ) we read, "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
By lifting his thinking to the truth of creation, the individual can prove his dominion over the limitation and error that would curtail his activities or mar his harmony. When he identifies himself as the spiritual image and likeness of the infinite, divine Principle, God, forever governed by God's laws, he learns that he is not actually subject to age, failure, accident, or past mistakes. Christian Science teaches that it is only the false concept, the mortal or corporeal personality, which seems to experience these errors.
Mary Baker Eddy states on page 264 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures": "Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind?"
Christian Science is in accord with the teachings of Christ Jesus, who always looked away from material things and up to his heavenly Father, infinite, eternal, divine Love, for the answer to his problems. He refused to entertain or accept as real the material evidence of matter, but looked to the higher law of Love.
When feeding the five thousand, the Master did not give credence to the material view of lack or limitation, presented by a few loaves of bread and two small fishes. While his disciples were contemplating these material conditions, he looked up to God to gain the spiritual view of abundance. He knew that supply does not depend upon material conditions but upon God.
The glorious result was the witnessing in human experience to the divine fact that supply is spiritual, for the Bible states that after Jesus had given thanks, the people were so abundantly supplied that there was food left over.
Not by occasional moments of upward glancing at the spiritual facts of being but by perseverance in practicing Godlike qualities in the daily routine does one gain dominion over evil. The individual who looks up and beholds himself as the image and likeness of God does not express envy, impatience, domination, or criticism, but rules out these false traits by manifesting love, gratitude, intelligence, and patience. In divine reality, there is no mortal to express error; there is only God's joyous, spiritual, perfect man.
One who understands Christian Science refuses to believe that he is an unfortunate mortal, struggling with a difficult problem, while other mortals more fortunate seem to experience freedom from disease or lack. Looking to God for the true facts of existence, he acknowledges that he is a spiritual idea of God and that infinite Love is impartial. He cherishes giving rather than getting and finds genuine gladness in another's good fortune or a fellow worker's promotion.
Every time the individual in search of healing rejects the temptation to see himself or anyone else as a mortal and turns his gaze to the spiritual and true facts of being, he is that much nearer to the realization of his freedom. We read in Science and Health (p. 261 ), "Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality."
If the pathway seems obscured with discouragement or fear, one can always look up and thank God with gratitude that the spiritual fact never changes. We read in Psalms (119:62 ), "At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee." Gratitude always illumines the pathway with light and gives one courage to press forward. When the material picture seems dark, the Comforter, the Christ, Truth, is always present to assure one that he is now a son of God, ageless, changeless, and perfect.
A student of Christian Science began to manifest blurred and failing eyesight. Instead of looking to matter for improvement or encouragement, she began to look outward and upward to the spiritual source of perfection, God. She reasoned that as His image and likeness she could see only His creation, not hazily but clearly.
As her thought was lifted up to behold the fact that it is God who sees, not a material organism, she began to gain her freedom. However, many months passed before the healing was complete. Discouragement tempted her to feel self-pity, and the burden threatened to be heavy. But as she held fast to the upturned vision and beheld the spiritual concept of man in God's image, the blurred vision yielded to clear and perfect eyesight.
Age and time cannot stop the spiritual thinking that brings healing. Failing eyesight cannot deter one from lifting up his inner vision to the divine reality. Lack, disease, or fear cannot stop or hinder one's progress Spirit ward. Material conditions yield to the spiritual reality as consciousness is clarified to behold the high and exalted concept of God's perfect creation.
