The gift of vision

I just passed another driver's test! So, what's unusual about that? Well, twenty years ago my driver's license said, "Must wear corrective lenses." Christian Science healed me. Each license renewal since shows no need of glasses.

The healing started when I realized faulty vision could be corrected by spiritual means. To see more clearly I must see more spiritually. I studied the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy n1 (with the aid of Concordances) to discern the real meaning of eyes, sight, vision, lens, image, focus.m

n1 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

My first breakthrough came with the awareness that man's true vision is not material but spiritual.The Bible states, "The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them." n2 Since God is Spirit and all-seeing, His opposite, matter, has no sight -- it cannot see or be seen. Man, God's idea , reflects spiritualm sight.

n2 Proverbs 20:12;

Vision, then, like love and wisdom, is not something to be lost but the constant gift of God to be fully used.

The clear vision of God and man is the perfect view of creation. The lens for seeing perfection here and now is humility. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Humility is lens and prism to the understanding of Mind-healing . . . ." n3

n3 Miscellaneous Writings,m p. 356;

Humility is the means through which Christly truth and love shine into human consciousness. Through humility we can discern the absolute allness and adorable nature of God and the utter powerlessness of evil. We can see the spiritually perfect man, home, government, church, where their fallible opposites are seen through the lens of rivalry, resentment, prejudice. Through humility we can see loving, reflective being. Jesus said, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." n4

n4 John 5:19;

True sight is as invariable and unfailing as divine Love. Infinite Love, God , demands that we be loving regardless of another's thought, word, action -- that we refuse to acknowledge evil as a power or reality, however agressive it seems.

In this more precise light we can see relatives, friends, even enemies correctly, whereas criticism or fear would distort the true view. Mrs. Eddy writes, "Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down." n5

n5 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 301.

Within "the focal distance of infinite Spirit," false views of God and man are corrected. Such views -- that God Creates evil, that man is a sinner in need of diagnosis, drugs, drops, lenses, for healing -- are all out of focus with spiritual reality. Striving to see everyone and everything as God created them, we look through error to perceive the true idea of reality. As mistaken images of thought disappear, ideas become more sharply defined, and people appear in a less critical, more kindly light. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight. Mark 10:51, 52

Truth undergoes no age or deterioration. It keeps God-centered, everlasting Life in focus. As we concentrate on living a selfless life, we see unlimited good, and neither fear the future nor bemoan the past. We live fully, now and forever, in the light of Christ.

Christly vision is the ability to discern reality in all things -- to see the ideas of Mind's creation. Spiritual discernment -- the wisdom, understanding, intelligence of Mind -- never wears out, is never used up. Soul's faculty of sight is unimpairable, indestructible, permanent. It cannot be lost, altered, infected, or defective, for it is an everlasting fact -- the divine gift of vision.