Remove the disguise, find healing

One day close to Halloween, my family and I were walking around the shops with some friends who have two boys, the younger of whom was three years old. When he saw all the Halloween costumes, masks, and decorations in the shops, he became increasingly unsettled by their scary appearances. 

It didn’t help when his older brother slipped into a mask and costume. But the situation was quickly resolved when we proved that the boy’s fears were groundless—that it was, in fact, his brother inside the ghostly costume. The reality had been hidden, albeit temporarily, by a disguise. Once our friend’s child could see beyond his brother’s disguise, his face beamed with happiness once more, and I thought, “What a wonderful lesson there is in this!” I reasoned that if we, as adults, dealt with frightening circumstances the same way we deal with stories of monsters and ghosts, then the fear would cease to impress us.

As long as the child was thinking that the costumes and masks were real, he was frightened of what he thought was a power beyond his control that could harm him. Similarly, adults may feel that there are powers they cannot control and that can bring harm. But Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells us that God, who is our creator and entirely good, has complete power: “There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God” (p. 228).