Eye inflammation cleared
In August 2012, I was asked to substitute as First Reader in my branch church for a Wednesday and a Sunday. On the Friday before the Sunday service, one of my eyes began to itch very much and water heavily. The extreme redness of that eye and its sensitivity to any light made it hard to keep the eye open. I had never experienced anything like this before. I called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment because, after a day of praying about this, I saw no progress and doubted that I could fulfill the duties of Reader for the Sunday service.
The practitioner assured me that with God’s support I would be able to serve in my post. When I tried to figure out the cause of this condition, the practitioner helped me understand that God is the only cause, and only good can result from this divine Cause. I was able to successfully complete that First Reader Sunday assignment. Each day, as I worked with the practitioner, studied the Christian Science Bible Lesson, and prayed, I turned my thought away from the symptoms and wrote down simple truths focused on healing. I held to a couple of statements Mary Baker Eddy makes on pages 214–215 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Neither age nor accident can interfere with the senses of Soul, and there are no other real senses,” and “Spirit’s senses are without pain, and they are forever at peace.”
Each month, I volunteer at a Salvation Army soup kitchen. On the appointed day, when I came in for duty, the cook-supervisor offered his opinion that I appeared to have conjunctivitis. Because he was abiding by health laws that applied to him and his staff, he sent me home. When I returned to my study, I wrote down this thought: “I am what Spirit creates and governs. No negative outside influence or assessment can ever change this spiritual fact.”
Respectfully avoiding close contact with the public, I continued my prayer and study. The practitioner helped me achieve a more spiritual, God-centered control of my thinking. As this came about, I was able to write down statements of truth in my own words that helped me unsee the condition and replace it with spiritual truths that addressed a lack of confidence in my own prayer and a fear of losing sight in that eye.
I came to see that freedom is my divine heritage, and I am not limited by matter. As God’s reflection, I exist in and express the unlimited nature of Spirit. Since God is all-seeing, my sight is not governed by matter, eye, or lens, but by infinite Mind in its uninterrupted perfection. When it was difficult to keep the eye open due to light sensitivity, I held strongly to a line in Hymn 275 , “Light blesses opened eyes” (William P. McKenzie, Christian Science Hymnal). Holding to this statement helped me drive safely when I had to drive our car.
Not long thereafter, the healing came. I was grateful for the patience of the practitioner, who talked with me daily, even while he was vacationing at a distant location. I was reminded how complete the healing was last February when I was shoveling snow on a bright sunny morning with no thought or need for sunglasses. I am grateful to Mary Baker Eddy for sharing her revelation of Christian Science. And I am grateful for the spiritual growth realized from the prayer and study in overcoming this challenge.
Peter Bartlett Cooper
Bass River, Massachusetts, US
