Last June, I had to take an eye exam. I don’t wear glasses, but the exam was required for my driver’s license renewal. I’ve had to undergo this procedure, which tests for distance vision, almost every time I’ve renewed, because I’ve lived in six different states since first getting my license as a teenager. Now, even though I haven’t changed legal residence for some time, the Division of Motor Vehicles judges me to be old enough to need such tests more and more frequently.

It had become more difficult each of the last few times I took the eye test. I found I had go farther and farther down the electronic chart to read lines of larger and larger letters. The last time, five or six years ago, the examiner said I just barely squeaked by without glasses. While my reading wasn’t affected, I had had some trouble seeing road signs and other things at a distance before.

This time, during the months preceding the exam, I had been doing Christian Science metaphysical work to heal what seemed to be a serious illness. A big part of that work involved carefully reading and rereading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I was focused on getting to know God better, and while I wasn’t praying specifically about the idea of sight at first, I had a powerful sense of seeing more deeply into the spiritual concepts I was reading. I often spoke with a Christian Science practitioner, who was helping me prayerfully, and just about every time we would discuss what I was reading in Science and Health, I would hear myself saying things like, “I’m seeing so many new things in the textbook”; “I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before”; or “I’m seeing so much more deeply into what Mrs. Eddy wrote.” (The acute symptoms of the illness were healed, too, as I prayed.)

On the day of the eye exam, as I was about to go out the door, my wife called for our morning “briefing” (a conversation we have each day when she’s away from home), from the location of her latest business trip. I told her I couldn’t talk right then because I was on my way to the DMV and the eye exam. I said I had enough time for a brief metaphysical thought, though. My wife paused a second and said, “Seeing is believing.” I thanked her and told her I liked it. I pondered its meaning as I drove to the DMV.

That might not be the most profound or absolute statement of divine metaphysics, but to me it pointed to the fact that all human sensations and experiences, including sight and an eye exam, are actually mental, not physical. My sight was a perfect spiritual function, not a physical ability that could degenerate. I had been seeing this, over and over, through reading Science and Health. I was reminded of a favorite quote of mine, which begins, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened...” (Eph. 1:18). I’ve used that idea many times over the years, and to me it shows what “eyes” and “seeing” are all about—it’s understanding, not physical vision, that brings clarity.

Immediately after taking my paperwork, the DMV agent instructed me to look into the standard electronic device and read what I saw. I looked into the machine and said, “I don’t see anything.” The agent told me to pull my head back, reposition my eyes, and start again. I did this, but had to tell her, “I still don’t see anything except black.” By this point I was feeling a bit nervous. But then the agent said, “Oh, I forgot to turn the machine on.” Phew!

As she clicked it on, I sped through the top line of small, seemingly random letters. When I asked, “How’d I do?” the agent replied, “I wish I had your eyes.”

A few minutes later I walked out the door, the renewal completed, even including a photo that seemed more bright-eyed and a bit less horrific than usual. Since the healing, I haven’t noticed any trouble with reading signs while driving or seeing at a distance.

Robert Braun
Stonington, Maine, US