Out of my gratitude to God and a growing understanding of...

Debra Ann Jones

Out of my gratitude to God and a growing understanding of my identity as made in His image, I share this healing, which took place two summers ago.

I spent the summer in Israel working on an archaeological dig. About halfway through the season members of the camp became ill in an epidemic that put many of our crew in a hospital. Israeli officials spoke of the possibility of having to close the dig.

I had the symptoms of the complaint and was asked, by our camp nurse, to go to the hospital. As a student of Christian Science, I knew my healing lay not in hospital care, however tender its intentions, but in the healing of a false concept of my identity. The Bible, in the first chapter of Genesis, tells us that man was made in the image of God. I knew that image could not include a sick, fleshly mortal, subject to afflictions and temptations. I understood that God is Love, and Love can never be unloving or allow such a situation as was confronting the harmony of our work and our health. I prayed, realizing these truths, until I could replace the false picture of man as a suffering mortal with the true—man made in the likeness of God, spiritual, whole, and free.

At times I could do nothing but sing hymns, but I soon discovered a pamphlet I had brought with me, published by The Christian Science Publishing Society. It included a statement on "The Christian Science Standard of Healing." Then I saw why I had not yet enjoyed my healing. Instead of recognizing true being as already perfect and complete, I was seeking a healing of matter.

One point brought out was that the student of Christian Science "must completely give up medical theory and not merely give up its remedies." I saw what needed correcting. While I had given up material remedies, I was still affirming the symptoms of the complaint, and to a degree I was accepting the sickness as reality and in control.

I quickly realized man's nature is spiritual. To accept a belief of myself as a limited mortal was to accept all that includes. I then began to enjoy my freedom, not only because I had given up the material remedies but because I had given up the false concept of man as of material origin. The illness disappeared. The very definition of man as the image, or expression, of God excludes limitation and inharmony, for God is Spirit and perfect. Man, His image, can be nothing less than spiritual and perfect.

The dig remained open for the normal season, and our friends in the hospital soon were released. The healing truths that had corrected a false sense for me blessed everyone in our camp. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 13), "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals." Realizing that the freedom I was enjoying was not restricted to one, I began to see the truth of perfect God and perfect spiritual man for our entire community.

(Miss) Debra Ann Jones
Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts

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