One night I unexpectedly had to sleep over at the girls’ dorm at my high school for Christian Scientists, The Principia. (I’m a day student but the school also takes boarders.) I wasn’t prepared for this and didn’t have the essentials for an overnight. This was easily fixed when a good friend told me to go to her room and find everything I needed for the night. 

It had been a long day and I was looking forward to going to sleep. So, I quickly found a bottle that I thought was contact solution, poured it into a case, and soaked my contacts in the solution all night. 

The next morning when I went to the hall bathroom to put my contacts back in, I was severely shocked when I put one contact in and my eye started to burn. The solution I had used was a deep contact cleansing solution that was not meant to directly touch the eyes. Warnings on the bottle suggest getting immediate assistance from an eye care professional, with the chance of severe eye discomfort for a possible 24–48 hours. 

Right away, I felt very scared and held my eye to try to stop the burning. Within a few seconds, I was surrounded by two friends who were ready to help in any way possible. As one friend stood under a shower head with me, rinsing my eye with clean water (my contact eventually fell out), my other friend calmly and powerfully stated “the scientific statement of being” from Science and Health (see p. 468).  

Both friends stood with me, helping me find peace in this scary situation. Once I calmed down a bit, they both suggested that I go to Campus House where the Christian Science nurses on staff would have a better idea of how to support me. What my friends didn’t realize was that their clarity and deep conviction that God was in control of the situation had already helped me a lot. I was actually able to open my eye, which before had seemed completely impossible. 

I felt peace and calm, and started to think of two words from the Glossary of Science and Health: “spiritual discernment.” These are written by Mary Baker Eddy, and are a part of her spiritual definition of eyes (p. 586). The definition quickly went from something I vaguely understood and simply hoped would help, to a prayer with deep meaning. 

As I walked down to Campus House, I breathed deeply, taking in the harmony, beauty, and stillness of the morning. This calm soon became a part of me. 

As I walked down to Campus House, I breathed deeply, taking in the harmony, beauty, and stillness of the morning. This calm soon became a part of me as I realized that my nervous and fearful shaking had stopped. When I got to Campus House, the Christian Science nurse let me in and lovingly led me to a small room with an eyewashing station. Those two words “spiritual discernment” kept going through my mind. I asked her what “spiritual discernment” meant to her. She said she thought of discernment as understanding—the recognition and understanding of our spirituality rather than a material self. 

She then shared the definition of day from Science and Health: “The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love” (p. 584). She reminded me that our eyes depend on light to see. So, together we talked about how my goal for the day could be to see through the light of God by recognizing only the good and harmonious in every situation. 

Then she read Mrs. Eddy’s definition of church to me: “The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle” (p. 583). She mentioned that I was similar to that structure. She never for an instant defined me as a girl with a red, puffy, irritated eye, but as a spiritual being, resting assured with God’s guidance. It was impossible that I had made an irreversible mistake. Her confident understanding of God and man’s relationship, and the insightful conversation we had, made me feel so filled with gratitude for Mary Baker Eddy’s two seemingly simple words “spiritual discernment.” 

After my visit to Campus House, I called my mom and felt ready for a great day. I left feeling excited for the new lesson I had learned and the healing that I could already feel taking place. I had no contacts or glasses to wear to school that day, but depended on the light of God, His wisdom and illumination, to guide me through each moment. I held on to every idea from earlier that morning and had no difficulty seeing in my classes, and any swelling decreased significantly. When I got home that afternoon, my eye was completely normal. Any irritation or puffiness that I had felt before was totally gone. When my mom asked how I was doing, I told her that I was completely healed.

Later the next day when I talked to my friend who had let me use her contact solution, I told her of my quick healing. She expressed her gratitude, because she was familiar with the side effects that are expected in this situation. However, she had been diligently praying for my comfort all day long and was very grateful that I was free. We both mentioned this passage on page 471 in Science and Health: “. . . Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.”

This was one of the quickest and most significant healings of my high school years.