The Water-Skier

(written at age 12)

Gage Burdick

My neighbor asked me if I wanted to go water-skiing. We spend our summers at a large lake in the Minnesota resort area, and water-skiing is a great thing for anybody my age.

My friend was steering the boat with the throttle wide open. I'd forgotten how great a speed a ninety-horsepower engine was capable of. The wake behind the speedboat was so big, and I was managing well, but as we were coming to shore, I suddenly realized I was coming in much too fast. I tried to remember the truths that I'd learned in Sunday School. Almost at the same time, I attempted to fall straight back and instead stumbled in the sand. I flew into the dock!

Although my back was bleeding and I had a big gash, I was able to walk slowly up to the cottage. I started to think about "the scientific statement of being" by Mary Baker Eddy, which ends: "Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."^{Science and Health, p. 468;} I lay down for a while. After I had rested, my mom suggested that I study the whole lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly.

The lesson that week was on the subject of "Truth" and brought out that there never was anything wrong with man as God's image anywhere or at any time. No matter how it seemed, there couldn't be anything wrong with me, I knew, right then. I was God's likeness, God's child. I began to really think about that! I had just read these words of Mrs. Eddy's from the lesson: "The Science of Mind disposes of all evil."^{ibid., p. 473.}

After I had finished reading the lesson and had again thought through "the scientific statement of being," I fell asleep.

I woke in the morning and felt great. The gash went away a few days later.

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