We often say, "I see" when what we mean is, "I understand." Since seeing and understanding are so closely allied, doesn't it seem logical to seek more spiritual understanding—understanding of God and the nature of man in His image and likeness—if we need better seeing?

As we increasingly perceive that Spirit, God, created our true being, we learn that sight is not a quality of matter but a spiritual faculty given us by God. Real vision, then, is not material, and mortal beliefs about discordant sight are eliminated by understanding the spiritual nature of real vision.

Mrs. Eddy relates eyes, not to the flesh, but to Spirit, God. Part of her definition of "eyes" reads, "Spiritual discernment,—not material but mental."  ^{Science and Health, p. 586.} We are using our real eyes as we discern, as we perceive, the spiritual nature of man, the offspring of God. Understanding this not only improves human eyesight; it also helps free us from the fundamental belief that man is mortal, subject to matter.

The first chapter of Genesis records that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."  ^{Gen. 1:31.} Don't we need to behold the man of God's creating as "very good," good in a deeply pure, spiritual sense—as not living in matter but as living in God, his creator? Real vision is our ability to see man and the universe as God created them. Mrs. Eddy confirms that exercising our spiritual vision with increasing consistency inevitably improves our present eyesight. She writes: "There is more Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf centuries ago, and it will repeat the wonder."  ^{Science and Health, p. 487.}

How do we lay hold of our Mind-faculty of seeing? By disciplining thought. Instead of blindly accepting the false evidence of mortal mind, divine Mind's supposed opposite, as real, we need to vigorously deny the Adam-dream of life in matter. Bulwarking this denial with affirmation of the reality of God's "very good" creation brings progressive liberation from the degeneration associated with material eyesight.

For example, understanding that spiritual discernment cannot fade with time destroys the depressing mortal belief that man's sight is in matter and hence subject to time's deterioration. Time cannot touch our spiritual faculty of discernment, and the more we consciously perceive the eternal nature of man and the universe, the more we are freed from time's limitations on sight.

The concept of nearsightedness or farsightedness assumes sight to be in matter, governed by the laws of optics. But Science reverses that belief. God gives man clear and distinct spiritual vision, unaffected by human concepts of range, distance, and focus. Man's real sight is never, therefore, circumscribed by matter, either nearby matter or distant matter. Perfect focus forever characterizes spiritual, divinely mental vision. Mortal belief, no matter how adamant its claim to be law, never for an instant blurs the perfect vision that man, God's image, possesses by divine right.

Mortal mind, the belief that Mind is not immortal, sometimes suggests that eyesight is limited by abnormal structure of the material eye, abnormal secretions, or a buildup of pressure on the eye. These beliefs that would limit seeing are all based on the same mistaken premise that seeing is in matter, and therefore controlled by conditions of matter. The healing answer is to have faith in and accept the scientific counter fact that the ability to see is never in matter but resides in Spirit. Matter, regardless of the form it assumes, can never interfere with or in any way alter man's God-given ability to see clearly and perfectly. This truth, understood, restores the normal structure and sight to eyes.

The various theories that certain eye defects are hereditary can likewise be proved to be totally powerless to affect our vision. God, not heredity, predestines man, and God predestines good only. Therefore every individual inherits perfect, eternal vision directly from the all-seeing God. This divine fact is a powerful law of healing and restoration, which frees us from the despotism of so-called genetic laws.

Christ Jesus understood so well the spiritual nature of man's vision that he could accomplish marvelous healings of blindness. Today his healing method is reinstated in the teachings of Christian Science, and the opportunity exists for each of us to prove with scientific certainty that eternal, perfect vision is all we can ever really possess.

The Psalmist wrote, "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes."  ^{Ps. 19:8.} Our mental vision is enlightened through growth in spiritual understanding. Demanding of ourselves spiritual discernment of man and the universe, we find better eyesight is the inevitable result.