‘Evidence of things not seen’

It’s a question we may want to ask ourselves often: Are we going to accept what we think we’re seeing? Or, are we going to give our attention to what really matters but may be unseen at the time?

Circumstances or news of the day may elicit any number of reactions, including discouragement, sadness, frustration, disgust, fear, and even outrage. But many have found throughout the ages that having faith in what may not be readily apparent at a point in time – faith and conviction in the goodness of divine Life, God – can have profound and healing effects.

A letter to early Christians contains this riveting counsel and encouragement: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ... By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:1, 3, New International Version).

The idea that things are not necessarily what they seem would have made sense to followers of Jesus. Those who came in contact with his ministry underwent a profound paradigm shift away from human opinion and a merely material definition of life, into reliance on the power of divine Love.

Jesus’ teachings and the proofs he gave of Love, God, as ever-present good, changed the lives of those he taught and healed. Those who had experienced the transforming power of God’s love could never return to believing that surface appearances were the final word or that the limitations of merely human expectations could not be overcome.

At the heart of the early Christians’ experience was the joyful good news that God’s love is real and alive, even where material conditions seem the worst. Disciples saw lame people walk freely, blind men gain sight, a funeral procession change to rejoicing when a widow’s cherished son came back to life.

This was what identified Jesus’ spiritual selfhood for them as Christ – what Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, called, “The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 583).

Christian faith isn’t blind belief. It is the awakened consciousness that the injustice of sickness as well as the effects of wrongdoing – however backed by physical evidence – can be overcome by Christ, Truth. And what Jesus knew about God’s pervasive and all-powerful goodness, and God’s all-good spiritual creation (including each of us), is true for all time.

This is why he said that whoever understood who he was and where he came from would “do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12, NIV). We all have access to, and in actuality reflect, the “mind of Christ,” and can live from the paradigm that starts with God, Love, as all, and sees sin, disease, and death as errors, as not having reality because not part of God’s creation. This is the revelation of Christian Science.

We can begin with whatever is going on right where we are, and turn to this spiritual truth when confronted with the temptation to be outraged or discouraged, whether by another’s behavior or symptoms of ill health. Jesus’ approach shows that the difficulty (however intractable it may seem) can be overcome by seeing and living from our natural relation to divine Love – our life flowing from, and in, divine Love.

In a letter, the Apostle Paul told the Christians at Corinth that we should not only count on God’s love, but also make an active effort to reflect that divine love (see I Corinthians 13:1-13). This would ensure that we don’t leave God, Love, out of our lives.

Further in the letter, he appears to point to the following – that as we start on this path we won’t see everything perfectly, and old ways of seeing need to be outgrown. But having glimpsed the reality of God’s love, we should walk in that direction to the best of our ability, knowing that our efforts will be supported and confirmed by divine Love and the love we express.

It’s our divine right to readily turn from what may seem to be antagonizing us, and turn to the full-hearted hope in God that enables unseen good to be tangibly seen and experienced. Jesus’ proofs of divine Love are for all time. The eternal Christ is revealing God’s ever-present goodness as real, substantive, and visible.

Adapted from an editorial published in the September 2023 issue of The Christian Science Journal.