Have you ever noticed how differently you describe a close friend versus someone you don’t really know? For someone you don’t know, you might define the person by height or hair color. For a close friend, however, your description may not include anything physical at all.
For instance, here is how I would describe a particular friend of mine: He tries to listen to everyone, no matter what is being said. He always gives his best effort. He is most satisfied when he’s helping people.
This tendency to focus on someone’s character, rather than physical attributes, points to the idea that one’s genuine substance is not physical, but spiritual.
There is something beautifully metaphysical, even healing, about beholding the spiritual substance of someone – or oneself, for that matter. This week’s Bible Lesson in the “Christian Science Quarterly,” on the subject of “Soul,” offers inspiration on this. For instance, it includes some of Jesus’ healing works – in which he looked beyond physicality to people’s deeper, genuine spiritual nature, curing them of blindness, deafness, and an inability to walk (see Matthew 21:14, Mark 7:32-37).
The Lesson also includes useful insights unpacking how Jesus accomplished these healings and how following his example is still possible today. Here is one of them, from “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science: “Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he refuted all opponents with his healing power” (p. 18).
Taking this one step further, Science and Health explains, “When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or Truth, in its divine Principle” (p. 322).
As Christ Jesus demonstrated, perceiving Truth – which Christian Science teaches is another name for God, along with Life, Soul, and Principle – isn’t just fascinating; it brings tangible help to those who are suffering. Truth reveals to us that true creation, including each of us, is free of matter and entirely spiritual, reflecting God.
As we pray from this standpoint and are receptive to the intelligence and power of divine Love and Truth, we become more equipped to behold ourselves and others in our real, God-given identity as God’s spiritual creation – and less intimidated by the physical picture.
This doesn’t come about through human will, but through humbly turning exclusively to the power of God, divine Truth. Science and Health gives us these encouraging observations: “We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by following the example of our Master in the understanding of divine metaphysics. Christianity is the basis of true healing. Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power” (p. 192).
When I was assembling some large metal shelves recently, I cut my hand. The physical picture was one of blood and damage. As I prayed, however, I was inspired to realize that a spiritual view of my identity indicated something completely different: that our true substance is invulnerable because it is created and sustained by God, Spirit, not matter. I felt emboldened by the recognition that His spiritual creation cannot be harmed by metal shelving.
My perspective was so definitively changed that I barely noticed that I was entirely healed by the next day. I was reminded when I went into the garage and then realized that my hand was now smooth and normal.
Each of us can let Soul, God, tell us what’s really true about our identity, and experience the healing impact of this prayer.
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