Nature didn't do it!

Vibrant blue skies . . . white billowy clouds . . . majestic mountain peaks . . . all trees alive with breathtaking color - all the beauties of nature!

Have you ever wondered how God, the divine presence so magnificently represented by such grandeur, could allow the suffering so often associated with nature?

For a number of years I asked myself that very question. It was prompted by an allergy that had taken a good bit of the fun out of outdoor activities. Several hours after being out in the warm sunshine, I would break out all over with a rash. I loved the outdoors too much to let this curtail my activities, but it surely was a nuisance!

Finally, after years of putting up with this troublesome problem, I earnestly began to seek its solution through Christian Science. Through my study of this Science I had come to know God as Love, the Father-Mother of the universe, who includes within His being no disease-producing element. I had come to discern the true nature of His creation as spiritual and completely harmonious. I saw that as a mother provides protection and loving care for her children, just so Love cares for each of us as its children.

I had also learned that God is Mind, the one true creative, causative power, intelligently maintaining its creation. The nature of God is infinite good, without a tinge of evil. He causes only good, never sickness or distress. ''The Lord shall give that which is good,'' n1 the Psalmist sang.

n1 Psalms 85:12.

I reasoned along the following lines, from a spiritual basis rather than from a material standpoint:

God is the only genuine cause. God is good. Therefore what He causes or creates has to be good. Goodness cannot produce evil, such as sickness and suffering. These have no right to exist - and in absolute truth they don't exist.

Nature took on a new perspective. I began to see that God's spiritual universe is expressive of His many-faceted goodness. Since He is Spirit, His creation isn't truly made of matter. But this doesn't wipe out the good we see around us. The harmony visible to the physical senses points to the unseen reality of God's perfect spiritual creation. For example, we can see God's nature as the very Principle of the universe, symbolized by the order of the solar system. We can be reminded of his nature as Spirit by the stability and strength of hills and mountains. In countless and diverse ways we can see God's infinite goodness expressed. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, ''God is natural good, and is represented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature of Spirit, God.'' n2

n2 Science and Health will key to the Scriptures, P. 119.

I kept close to this line of spiritual reasoning. Not long after, I was standing outside in the midst of my vegetable garden. As I looked at the fragile little plants I was placing in the ground and felt the warm rays of the sun, I thanked God that nothing around me could hurt me in any way. I knew I could only feel God's love and gentle care. The subtle concerns that had bombarded me in the past just melted away. And I was healed of the allergy.

The spiritually-based thinking that brought about this healing has also been effective when I've had to deal with other nature-related difficulties, such as colds and flu, which are often associated with seasonal climatic changes. The change in weather from one season to another has no more effect on us than we allow it to have. Health problems don't arise from God, from nature, or from the weather. They come from mortal thinking - thinking based on a false view of creation, a material view that attributes power to both good and evil. Real power comes from God - ism God - and is of necessity good only.

Freedom from suffering is a God-given right that we all can and should exercise. God loves and cares for each one of us. As a loving parent would neither cause nor allow harm to come to his child, just so, God, our divine Parent - who is the only creator - neither causes nor allows harm.

As we recognize this spiritual fact more and more clearly, we can prove our freedom from nature-related troubles. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. II Corinthians 3:17