See Spot see

In college, my buddy had a wonderful dog named “Big Jeb.” He followed us everywhere and was everyone’s friend. He’d even sneak out of my buddy’s house and find me at meetings of our Christian Science Organization (CSO). He’d scratch at the door and whine until somewhere around the middle of the readings we’d have to let him in. He also had the run of the Fine Arts Building where we studied.

One day I was at the department office speaking to the secretary when Jeb came in. When I looked down to greet him, it was then I saw that he had lost one eye. It was not a pleasant picture.

I finished my business and went to a quiet hallway. Jeb followed me. I sat on the floor against the wall and took out The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which I carried in my backpack. As I read the Bible Lesson, Big Jeb lay right beside me with his nose on my legs the entire time. I used the truths I found in the Lesson to help me see Jeb as whole and complete. This is the way he really is in God’s kingdom.

After finishing the Lesson I went to class. When I saw Jeb an hour or so later, his eye was absolutely normal. All that was previously missing was completely restored.

That healing was so quick and complete that I almost wondered if it had really happened. But then I remembered speaking to Jeb’s owner earlier in the day. He’d joked that he would put a patch over the missing eye and call Jeb a pirate.

I learned a valuable lesson in how to pray from this experience. I realized that the thrust of my prayer must not be something like: “Dear God, help Big Jeb, he’s in trouble.” No, I had to see, with spiritual sense, the true nature of eye. My prayer took me into the realm of peace, of Spirit. It lifted me out of seeing this eye/lie.

Remembering this healing, one of my favorite hymns comes to mind, number 44:

Come to the land of peace;
From shadows come away;
Where all the sounds of weeping cease,
And storms no more have sway.

Fear hath no dwelling here;
But pure repose and love
Breathe through the bright, celestial air
The spirit of the dove.

In this divine abode,
Change leaves no saddening trace;
Come, trusting heart, come to thy God,
Thy holy resting place.

Big Jeb was his old self, that same day, seeing and running and of course, scratching at the CSO door.