Assault of the mosquitoes

Christian Science is about discovering spiritual reality in the here and now of everyday experience. As Jesus Christ taught, heaven is not a far off place attained after death. It is an ever-present consciousness of divine Mind that we reflect as spiritually minded children of God. And humans attain this consciousness by putting on the mind of Christ and putting off sin.

The actual demonstration of spiritual mindedness is not always easy. The world assaults human consciousness with arguments that build up evil, fear of disease, and submission to sin. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, became keenly aware of the need to daily defend one’s mental home from aggressive suggestions at large that take away peace of mind and health if not destroyed first. Jesus taught the same when he preached, “Watch!” meaning, be so keenly aware of the omnipresence of good, that no evil suggestion can sneak into your mental home undetected and cause physical or mental havoc.

Last week, I had what at the time, seemed the weirdest thing happen to me. Let me start by saying I rarely get mosquito bites where we live, if ever, and we’ve lived here several years now.

One evening, after reading a bit on the outside patio, I noticed some mosquito bites on my legs. Oh, that’s odd, I thought, and I didn’t think much of it. Then I went for a walk with my wife, which we commonly do, and got bit several times while strolling around the neighborhood. Now, I was really getting puzzled. I had shorts on, and my legs were covered in mosquito bites, so many I didn’t even try to count them. This is so weird! I protested. It was completely out of the ordinary.

I prayed the obvious prayer, knowing that I was in harmony with all of God’s creatures, and God didn’t create a bug that could harm me or would want to harm me. That I was in no danger in my own neighborhood and that the bites should rapidly disappear because there was no reason for them, nor any reason for them to stay on my body. I was innocent. I was spiritual, and in spiritual fact, could not get bitten in the first place. Christ was there to confirm this truth on my behalf, and thus the wounds would heal up quickly.

I found peace with this prayer, and was able to go through the night without touching the red spots begging for attention. But they did not go away quickly like they always had in the past. They hung around, and later the next day, became very noisy, if you know what I mean. The urge to itch intensified, and the picture was uglier than ever. By now, I knew the issue was much larger than dealing with mosquito bites.

As I’ve learned in the past, if a physical problem doesn’t go away quickly with the first one or two Christian Science treatments, then the issue is much deeper than just a physical claim. There are other mental things going on that need to be dealt with to clear the way for the physical healing. And my suspicion was some form of malpractice targeted against me that I was not getting a handle on.

No sooner did I get going down this line of reasoning, but an emotional flare-up on a particular issue erupted in our home. It was not a super big deal, but it was discord, which is out of the norm for our home, generally, a very peaceful place. And when I saw it, I exclaimed, “Aha! That’s it! It’s an assault on the harmony and peace of our home. It didn’t get to me, so it’s trying another way, through other family members.“ I impersonalized the conflict and treated it as malpractice against the health and harmony of my family, my home, and me too.

I prayed to know that we lived in a home of divine Love. That divine Love kept us all safe from any malpractice at large or specifically focused. That we all could feel only the influence of divine Love in our thinking, in our relations with each other, and in the body. That we were safe, protected, immune, out of the reach of any enemy and in no danger, ever. God is all. God is Love, and we lived in the omnipresence of that Love.

No sooner did I specifically treat the suggestion of malpractice, as just described, but a profound peace flowed over my thinking and my body. All the itchiness, burning sensation and angst over my legs vanished in a few minutes. It was an incredibly tangible experience of Love taking over my thought and the evil being shoved out rapidly. I knew I had finally put my mental finger on the error that needed to be eradicated. The peace remained, and the physical evidence of damage to my legs rapidly disappeared. The discord in our home was peacefully and quickly resolved, and heavenly order took over once again.

Oh, I am so grateful for Christian Science. It gives us the metaphysical tools we need to effectively and appropriately deal with evil. If I had viewed the mosquito bites strictly as a physical condition, and treated them with lotions and medicines, I would have totally missed out on the greater benefit of increasing the safety and peace of our home and protection of family members from outside mental influence. And the lesson would have to be learned later another way, and perhaps a harder way.

Now, to get back to enjoying our patio in the evening and neighborhood walks…