This is an edited excerpt from a program that aired recently on the Christian Science Sentinel—Radio Edition. The participants are Edward Little from Bellevue, Washington, Glynis Burgdorff from Summit, New Jersey, and Douglas Keith from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Edward Little: In the first chapter of Genesis, the second day of creation opens with these words: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day" (verses 6–8). What do these waters represent in the Biblical account of creation, or the revelation of God's truth?

Glynis Burgdorff: I think Genesis is teaching us that God is our Life. It's easy for us to understand human life in terms of water. It's an important symbol. We drink it. It causes food to grow. We bathe in it. We play in it.

Douglas Keith: Yes, but there's a flip side to it. If you have too many waters, you have floods that cause destruction. If you don't have enough water, drought destroys farmers' crops. And contaminated water threatens people's health.

GB: That's true. And, emotionally, we shed tears of sadness. We feel waves of fear. Sometimes we feel like we're in very deep waters, or even drowning.

DK: I had an experience where I felt as though I were drowning in fear and despair and depression. It was back in 1968 and I was in the U.S. Army in Vietnam. One night a communications site that we had on top of a mountain was overrun and destroyed. I was part of the infantry reinforcements that went up there the next morning. There was heavy fire as our helicopters came into the landing zone, and the evidence of battle was very grim. Many dead and wounded had to be taken care of that day, and we also spent a lot of time shoring up our defenses and our perimeter.

Not until night came did I have a chance to sit down and think about the situation. Briefly, it was this: there were eighty of us on a little piece of land about the size of a football field. Very dense jungle came right up to our perimeter, and inside our barbed wire were large outcroppings of boulders. So, it was very easy for the enemy to get right up close to our positions without our knowing he was there. And on top of that, we were outnumbered about twenty to one.

I was well armed that night. I had an M-16 and double the load of ammunition for it. I also had a 45 caliber pistol, and I was carrying much more than the normal load of ammunition for that, too. Even so, the more I thought about the situation, the worse I felt. I remember trying very hard to pray, but it seemed the harder I tried, the more depressed and fearful I became. I thought we were all going to die that night.

At that lowest point, I could muster only one clear thought. It was simply that I would much rather go into battle without my weapons but knowing that God was with me and that He would guide me and protect me, than to go into battle with my weapons but not feeling the presence and power of God's love for me. Right at that moment it was as though this voice said to me just as clearly as if someone were speaking to me, "The Mother-love is protecting you." In that instant that whole flood of fear and despair and depression completely washed away. It was as though it hadn't even existed.

There was a lot of shooting that night, but the next morning when we inspected our perimeter, we found thirty different instances where our enemy had cut our barbed wire or had cut the lines leading to our antipersonnel mines, but in every instance the enemy had turned around and gone back. We never directly engaged the enemy that night. Not one of us on that mountain that night was hurt or injured, and in inspecting the perimeter area the next morning, we found no traces of blood. So, I don't think any of the enemy were hurt or injured that night either.

When I think about that experience, two things come to light. The first is that as long as I was reasoning from a human standpoint, I was getting nowhere. I was just getting deeper into despair and fear. The second is that it wasn't until I was ready to give up all material sense of aid and turn wholeheartedly to God that my answer came. It was a very powerful and saving answer, and as it turned out, it was an answer not just for me but for everyone who was there.

GB: So, Doug, you were really saved, or rescued, from "the waters beneath."

DK: That's right, Glynis. They seemed to be like floods engulfing us, but there was a ready answer.

EL: Well, we should ask, Where do these waters—these fears, the despair that Doug was feeling—where do they come from? Perhaps the answer is in the second chapter of Genesis in verse 6, where it says that "there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." These waters are described as a mist which comes from the earth or from below.

GB: A mist is like a fog. It impedes vision. So, we need to ask what this mist would keep us from seeing. Perhaps it's "the waters above."

EL: Yes, that's right. And what does man look like in this mist? We find the answer depicted in the second through the fourth chapters of Genesis. There, man is in the undertow of waters of confusion, fear, hatred, disease, and death.

GB: It's interesting, too, that just as the mist springs up from the earth, the man in this mist springs from dust. This is the race springing up from Adam and Eve, who shut themselves out of divine peace and harmony. And the story of Cain and Abel embodies strife, hatred, vengeance, and war. The effects of believing we are part of this Adam-race really describe what you must have been feeling in Vietnam, Doug. But the mist dissolved for you, didn't it?

DK: Yes, Glynis. That all-pervading Mother-love completely dissolved the fear and hatred and the threat of death.

EL: In considering the first day of creation, which we talked about last week, we spoke about the spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters. And when that spirit of God moved, its first action was to speak the Word: "And God said." Isn't that what Doug heard—the Word, or the truth of God's love, speaking to him and saving him?

It's this activity of God's truth and love uttering itself—the Word—that dissolves the mist. And that still, small voice is the essence of the divine revelation that's found throughout the Bible. It's also found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by Mary Baker Eddy.

DK: She writes there so beautifully these words: "The 'still, small voice' of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of Truth is, to the human mind, 'as when a lion roareth.' It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear" (p. 559). That certainly is where I heard it that night. It's wonderful to know that this utterance of Truth comes to save us from these floods that come from beneath. And I believe this voice is what the Bible refers to in the second day of creation as the waters above.

GB: I love the verses from Isaiah that liken the waters above to God's Word. It says, "For as the rain cometh down ... from heaven, ... so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth" (55:10, 11).

EL: We talked about what man looks like in the mist. What would man look like as he appears out of these water above?

GB: He certainly doesn't look like the man in the mist. The first Psalm says he is "like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper" (verse 3). This man who issues from the waters above expresses all the fullness of the Life that is God.

EL: So, this perfect creation—these waters above—is inverted in the account of creation in the second chapter of Genesis that is spoken of as mist, the mist of hatred, fear, and death.

GB: Yes. When I'm thinking about this false creation, or the waters beneath, I always remind myself that there are not two creations. This creation beneath is not another creation or an addition to God's creation. On the first day of creation God did not say, "Let there be mist." He said, "Let there be light."

If I were to describe this to my children, I might take them outside and show them a beautiful white bird flying around in the sky. Then I'd ask, "What would happen if Mommy gave you a pair of red sunglasses to put on?" And they would answer, "The bird would look red." Then I would say: "Now, where's the white bird, and where's the red bird? Are there two birds now? Or did the white bird go away, and is there really a red bird?" They'd giggle with me and say: "No, Mommy. There is no red bird. There's only a white bird that looked red because we had sunglasses on. There aren't two birds." Then I can draw out the point that putting sunglasses on never makes the white bird red. The only thing it alters is our perception of the bird.

In the same way, what we call the material universe, or mortal creation, never, in fact, exists. It only seems to exist through the false lens, or the sunglasses, of what we call mortal mind, which is the mist, the waters beneath. The mist is a false perception of the only true existence. It never alters the perfection of God's creation anymore than red sunglasses could turn the white bird into a red one.

EL: If it's just a mist, I wonder why it seems so real to us. Maybe the answer is that other "player" we find in the second account of creation, the talking serpent. Now, a "talking" serpent—there isn't any such thing.

DK: No, there isn't. Everything about the serpent is mythological. It's a lie. The serpent—the lie of life and intelligence in matter—suggests that both the spiritual creation and the material sense of creation are real and that God is their author. The serpent would confuse and blend these two creations by persuading Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It would try to persuade us, too.

EL: The outcome of the suggestion that the first creation, which is all good, and the second account of creation, which is both good and evil, are the same doesn't bring life, fulfillment, or happiness to Adam and his race. It brings sorrow, disease, and death.

GB: Science and Health refers to the serpent. It states, "From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind and matter and the mingling of good and evil have resulted from the philosophy of the serpent" (p. 269).

EL: So, if the serpent's intent is to persuade us that God's creation is both good and evil, how are we going to untangle the confusion? It's pretty clear that we can't do it alone. We need God's help, and He gives us that help. God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the water." If we start the second day of creation with the waters above and the waters beneath—the spiritual creation and the material sense of creation—both seeming to be true, what is this firmament that divides these waters?

DK: Science and Health gives us a beautiful explanation of that in the Glossary. It says, "Firmament. Spiritual understanding; the scientific line of demarcation between Truth and error, between Spirit and so-called matter" (p. 586). This firmament is really the discernment of the difference between the waters above and the waters beneath.

GB: The love of God has clearly delineated the distinction between the real and the unreal creations through His Word. We know that the second account of creation is the false account, but it has a definite use. The second chapter of Genesis points out this false claim about creation so that we don't believe it. In Miscellaneous Writings Mary Baker Eddy says, "Not to know that a false claim is false, is to be in danger of believing it; hence the utility of knowing evil aright, then reducing its claim to its proper denominator,—nobody and nothing" (p. 108).

EL: Yet, seeing through the nothingness of sin isn't something we have to do on our own, is it? The Bible teaches that it's the Christ—the Word of God—which leads us out of the miseries of human life, out of the type of suffering that's seen in the lives of Adam and Eve and their offspring, Cain and Abel. Paul writes, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (I Cor. 15:22).

Mary Baker Eddy indicates in No and Yes that the blood of Christ is "outpouring love" (see p. 33). It's this divine Love, isn't it, that Jesus demonstrated in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death? And it's this Christ, Love, which is healing and saving us.

GB: Doug, you spoke of feeling the presence of Love in Vietnam. Well, aren't the waters above really waters of Truth and Love? Science and Health describes them as "flood-tides of Love." It says, "The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love" (p. 201).

EL: I had an interesting experience that illustrates this divine Love. I had done a good turn for an individual, but he completely misinterpreted my motive to the point that he became very angry with me and actually threatened my life. I came home from talking with him and felt that my life was in danger. During the night I sang hymns and prayed, assuring myself of God's love and protection. More specifically, I prayed to feel a great sense of love for this man who had so misinterpreted my actions.

I did this every night for about a week. Then something quite remarkable happened. This individual telephoned me and apologized for his behavior, indicating that he had, indeed, intended to harm me, but that he was very sorry for harboring those feelings. I was moved very deeply by this because it made me realize the power of divine Love.

GB: We're really protected from our enemies by loving them, aren't we? The waters above represent the love that enables us to see the spiritual individuality of every man as the pure and sinless nature that God created in the first chapter of Genesis. When God spoke of His creation, He said that it was "very good."

EL: And this creation that is "very good," that is the manifestation of divine Love, can never be altered by the mist. There's a beautiful passage in the Song of Solomon that refers to the waters below. It says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it" (8:7).