Article January 16, 2012 Issue

Don't let your eyes fool you!

By Michael Mooslin

My grandmother loved to tell the story of a little girl who attended a Christian Science Sunday School and hurt her finger playing. When the girl’s father came home and asked to see the injury, she replied, “Oh, Daddy, please don’t see what you’re going to look at.” In other words, be careful not to be taken in by the physical picture, or you may be fooled by what you are seeing!

How often I’ve used that illustration to make a point about spiritual perspective in my Sunday School classes. And in considering God’s role in our lives, I’ve often invited young people to imagine a puddle on the sidewalk with the sun coming down and evaporating it. Did the sun recognize the puddle or even touch it as the water evaporated? Of course not! Similarly, the manifestation of God (the Christ, or God’s revealed word) comes right to our material, human misconception of life and changes it, just as the sun evaporates the puddle.

When we see anything, be it a hurt finger, a puddle, or a beautiful sunset, we're looking from either a spiritual or a material perspective. 