“Mrs. Eddy debunks the belief that there can be two creations, one spiritual and one material.”
/1. What do you think the word “creation” implies?
Creation implies all that exists, all that God made and is spiritually conceived, perceived and maintained. Creation is infinitely complete and expresses only the qualities of God its Creator, qualities such as perfection, peace, permanence, intelligence, power, science, substance, joy, freedom, health, holiness, happiness and goodness which permeate the entire fabric of being and are reflected by man and the universe.
2. In your own words describe your impressions of the chapter “Creation” in Science and Health.
Mrs. Eddy debunks the belief that there can be two creations, one spiritual and one material. She makes it clear early in the chapter that God, Mind is infinite and cannot proceed from a finite form or material limits. She shows the implausibility that a corporeal and finite mortal could possibly be the image and likeness of an infinite and limitless God. All that would seem to contradict God’s spiritual creation are the physical senses. But these senses are admittedly incapable of perceiving God at all, so how reliable can they really be? This chapter presents us with a choice. We can allow the physical senses to deceive us into believing in a limited, matter-based concept of ourselves and a dystopian view of the world we live in or we can through spiritual sense embrace the truth of a perfect, all-powerful God and His perfect creation in which nothing but good exists. By choosing the latter we can begin to see the limitless and harmonious spiritual reality of creation, of ourselves and of the God-filled universe we live in.
3. How can the increased understanding of true creation make a difference in your life? Better yet, share with us how the truth of creation has been, or is being, demonstrated in your life.
There was a time in my life when circumstances appeared bleak. The career I’d trained for and pursued for many years had gone nowhere and I wasn’t qualified for much of anything else. I took several stop gap jobs to make ends meet, but none of them were career worthy or held the promise of a secure future. While working these temporary jobs, I started learning about computers and the ins and outs of some of the common environments they operated in. I was certainly no expert, but I found that I could help my small-business employers solve many of their computer-related problems. Still my career prospects looked unpromising, and although my wife and I had enough to live on, we had little in the bank and no retirement savings. It was at this point that I got serious about turning to God for answers. I knew that He had created me to express Him and that my real career or employment was to bear witness to this truth.
One of my greatest fears was having no formal training in anything other than the career I had left behind and that this liability would prevent me from obtaining a good position. Two passages from Science and Health helped put down this fear. The first was from Christian Science versus Spiritualism, page 89: “Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them. Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent. We are all capable of more than we do. The influence or action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phenomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.” The second was from the chapter on Creation, page 258: “God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.”
I remember sitting quietly in my chair one day cherishing a sincere desire to be led by God and to be obedient to whatever direction He gave me. The newspaper was lying on the floor next to my chair. As I looked down I noticed it was open to a single page of the want ads section and in an instant one of the ads stood out to me like a beacon. I did not question it. I immediately prepared an appropriate version of my resume and sent it to this employer. In less than a week I was called in for an interview and in less than another week I was offered the job. I stayed at this company for 22 years and for 10 of those years I led the department I was hired into. As a postscript, one afternoon a few years ago I was having a conversation with the man who hired me, and the subject came up of what it had been like at the company back in the early nineties. He told me that at the time I joined they were receiving nearly a thousand resumes a week and that most of the applicants looking for jobs in his group had degrees in computer science or experience working with large scale computer systems. Obviously, I had neither of these qualifications but despite that, I was selected for an interview and got the job.