Liza and Wendy were neighbors. Liza had been going to the Christian Science Sunday School for two years. Wendy was not a Christian Scientist.

One afternoon Liza remembered that she had not seen Wendy for a day or two, so she went over to her house to ask her to come out and play. Wendy came to the door in her pajamas and told Liza that she was sick and had to stay inside the house.

"And, Liza," she said, "if I touch you, you'll get sick too."

As Wendy said this, she leaned out the door and touched Liza. After they talked a bit more, Liza went home, but she didn't tell her mother what Wendy had said.

That night at supper, Liza didn't eat much. Finally Mother asked her what was wrong.

"My tummy hurts," Liza said.

Mother told her she could be excused from the table, but Liza added, "My head hurts too."

Mother was quiet for a moment, listening to hear the good thoughts God would send her to help Liza understand that hurting and sickness are never a part of God's child. Mother knew that Liza and Wendy, and everyone, are in reality God's perfect reflections and that none of God's children can be sick, can be unlike God, good.

"Liza, she asked, "what did Wendy say to you today?" Liza's mother had seen her standing at Wendy's doorway and had seen Wendy in her pajamas.

"Wendy told me she could make me sick," Liza said.

Mother smiled. She knew this was a lie of error and an opportunity for Liza to use what she had learned in Sunday School.

Then Mother remembered the twenty-third Psalm, which begins, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," and ends, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." She thought, I know that God will show Liza that she is always God's happy, well child, never able to be sick.

Mother saw that if they didn't listen to error and listened only to God, Truth, their thinking and their home would be filled with good, with no room for anything else.

Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 282), "Truth has no home in error, and error has no foothold in Truth."

Mother knew that Christ Jesus loved little children and that their clear thinking understood the truths he taught. Liza knew and loved the story of Christ Jesus. She could understand too.

Mother pulled Liza up onto her lap and put her arms around her. She wanted Liza to understand that God, Love, was close to her, because Liza was believing that she felt sick and unhappy.

"You are not sick!" Mother said, speaking sternly to Liza, "and nothing can make you believe you are, because really you are God's perfect child. God knows nothing about sickness, and God is all-power and all-presence. Error cannot make you sick, because error is nothing. If the headache and tummyache were never real and have no place, then no one can have them or give them to anyone else. God's child reflects God, and that is true of everyone. Wendy can't make you sick. Do you understand that?"

Liza nodded her head, "Yes." She remembered that her Sunday School teacher had explained to her that God is everywhere and that God is good, and so good is everywhere and all. She knew everyone is really God's perfect reflection and that this meant that she must always be good and well and happy.

Liza's father was sitting at the supper table with Liza and her mother while they were talking. "You know, Liza," he began, "if you sit under a big tree in the shade, the sun can't shine on you, can it?"

"No," Liza said.

"Well," explained Father, "if you listen to error and sit in the shade, then the sunshine of Truth can't get to you, can it?"

Liza understood this. She had a big tree in her front yard and had seen the sunshine and shadows.

Liza said no more about the error she had listened to. She took her bath and went to bed. In the morning when she woke up, she had forgotten all about it, and she was well. The sunlight of Truth was really shining all around her.