I recently visited the Point Reyes Lighthouse, a National Historic Landmark on the California coast. Built in 1867, it houses a first-order Fresnel lens made of 1,032 glass prisms that can take the light of a single oil lamp and project it approximately 24 miles to the horizon—without the use of electricity. The lens magnifies the light through the prisms so that it can radiate out across the ocean surface. When the lighthouse operated to guide ships, it would pierce the foggy darkness, providing a beacon to help them navigate along the rocky shore.

When we’re navigating a rocky situation, even a tiny spark, just an inkling, of understanding God can help illuminate our way through the fog, or complexities, of human life. And studying Christian Science aids in magnifying that spark, making it clearer and brighter to us, allowing the light of God, Truth, to guide us into a greater understanding of the reality and omnipotence of good and the unreality and powerlessness of evil.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote that Christian Science operates like a prism—“the prism of Truth, which divides its rays and brings out the hues of Deity” (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 35). She also wrote, “The lens of Science magnifies the divine power to human sight; and we then see the supremacy of Spirit and the nothingness of matter” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 194). Christian Science increases our understanding of God as infinite, ever-present Spirit. And as the Bible shows, familiarity with Spirit as the only real power in the universe helps individuals facing all types of danger, including war, harsh weather, disease, and poverty. And today, many who regularly study the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy—a book that’s been bringing healing to its readers for a hundred and fifty years—feel this saving spiritual illumination.