Take another look
My guests, a couple whom I have known for many years, were thoroughly familiar with my kitchen. They knew perfectly well that I keep bread in the refrigerator. And yet when they were visiting recently they told me I was out of bread. I went confidently to the refrigerator, and there on the shelf behind a jar was all the bread we could possibly want. My friends said: ''But we looked! We looked all through the refrigerator. It wasn't there when we looked.''
Oh yes it was. Right under their noses.
Haven't we all had the experience of looking for something and not seeing it -- and then finding it later right where we thought we had carefully looked? Clearly, the reports of the physical senses are unreliable. And yet we have been educated to believe what these senses tell us. Certainly they can't tell us anything about the true nature of existence, which transcends the ever-fluctuating conditions of matter.
The senses report either a lack or an abundance of matter. But Christian Science opens our eyes, as Jesus opened the eyes of his disciples, to the infinite possibilities of Spirit, to the abundance of spiritual ideas already present, which show themselves in ways that meet the human need tangibly, right where the need is.
In his brief ministry on earth Christ Jesus showed us the results of turning to spiritual insight instead of to matter for what we need. What did Jesus see when he fed the thousands in the wilderness with an apparently inadequate supply of fish and loaves?n1 Or when he fed the disciples at the morning meal on the shore of Galilee after his resurrection?n2 Did he see a limited supply of matter , or did he discern God's, Spirit's, unlimited provision? Right where he was, it was proved that there was ample supply for everyone.
n1 See John 6:5-13.
n2 See John 21:4-9.
Jesus showed us that the Mind that is Spirit includes within itself all that is necessary for the well-being of its creation. And that Spirit is constantly manifesting itself. Jesus was never stumped for an answer to the question of where his sustenance was. At one time he told Peter to go to the sea and catch a fish, assuring him that he would find the tax money in its mouth. n3 This was a most unlikely and unprecedented way to get money to pay taxes. But it allowed our Master and Way-shower to instruct his followers to entertain the infinite possibilities of Spirit in place of any finite demands of matter-based thinking.
n3 See Matthew 17:27.
Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, ''Christ, Truth, gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually.''n4
n4 Science and Health, p. 442.
In order to avail ourselves of the "temporary food and clothing'' provided by Christ, Truth, we must be willing to spiritualize our thinking and accept Spirit as our Mind, as Jesus taught. This involves prayer and a growing understanding and living of the Bible's healing message.
If you haven't yet found what you are looking for -- money to pay your taxes, health, satisfaction -- take another look. Look from the spiritual standpoint of life based in divine Mind.
Jesus counseled his followers to repent -- or thoroughly change their minds - ''for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.''n5 We too can change our basic viewpoint. We may have to do some deep searching; we may have to radically change our beliefs and opinions. But when we look again, from the spiritual standpoint of heaven ''at hand,'' we will find that we truly have everything we need.
n5 Matthew 4:17.
DAILY BIBLE VERSE The Lord is at hand . . . . Let your requests be made known unto God. Philippians 4:15,6
