Article May 2, 2011 Issue

Calm in the midst of wild winds

Rebekah Charlston

One of my favorite chapters of Science and Health is the Glossary. This chapter is where you can find “the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning” (p. 579). Often I turn to this section in order to understand the spiritual definitions of ideas and to find healing and inspiration. 

I had a wonderful experience with the definition of wind last summer while working at a summer camp for Christian Scientists. Here’s the definition from Science and Health: “WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipotence and the movements of God’s spiritual government, encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal passions” (Science and Health, p. 597). (Mary Baker Eddy’s definitions often include both the spiritual meaning as well as the false, material sense of something.) 

A few weeks into the second session of camp, we had a few days of incredibly strong winds. Because the camp is situated right on a peninsula of a beautiful lake, the winds often pick up and can become remarkably powerful. Wind has always been one of my favorite elements of weather because to me it feels so cleansing and purifying, like it’s just blowing away all the resentment, frustration, and fear that I may be feeling. During the first day of the strong winds I was really enjoying them and feeling how their enveloping gusts represented God’s powerful presence, in harmony with the first part of that definition in Science and Health.

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