There's a rare joy to be found in healing others through Christian Science. And those who have felt the healing touch of Christ, Truth, in their own lives often have a deep desire to gain the ability to heal others. But is this a far-off goal, something to be won only when we feel worthy enough? Or do we have the ability to heal right now?

If we truly love God and cherish each individual as being in truth God's image and likeness, we do have the ability now. In fact we might say that the capacity to heal and our own glad appreciation of God's allness and goodness go hand in hand.

The practice of Christian Science (whether we're advertised as public practitioners in The Christian Science Journal, or just have a ready willingness to pray for others if they request our help) flows naturally from our own joy in discovering how good God is. As Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health: "Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it." ^{Science and Health, p. 57.}

When we're earnestly endeavoring to demonstrate Christian Science for ourselves and finding joy in what we're learning of God's supremacy, that joy empowers our healing ability. To think that we have to wait until some later date before claiming our God-given ability to heal is a little like having untold wealth in a bank but never using it. God has given us all we need for healing, and we can utilize our spiritual riches for the sake of others. This supply is not dependent upon years spent in studying Christian Science or years of church membership, though we may widen our access to it through experience and service. The demonstration of healing is not contingent only on how much we know of the deeper aspects of metaphysics, but on how much we love.

Spiritual love is more than the natural desire to see others well and happy, as vital as that is. Spiritual love stems from a desire to glorify God by seeing Him as the perfect creator and to love man as His immaculate image and likeness. This is what we need if we are to recognize our ability to heal right now.

But do we have this spiritual love? Of course! It's an inherent part of our true being as God's representative, man. The Apostle Peter said, "If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth." ^{I Pet. 4:11.} God has given each one of us such Christly healing qualities as compassion, patience, spiritual affection, courage, humility. And through Christ and Christian Science, He has given us the ability to understand and demonstrate His perfection and goodness. If we will employ our present spiritual comprehension of divine metaphysics, we will find that God's power is with us.

Even though the temptation may come to feel we are not good enough to heal, that suggestion can be rejected on the basis of the truth that it is God, divine good, who heals through the activity of Christ, Truth, in consciousness. If we're doing our best to be obedient to God and to express the spirituality that our hearts so genuinely love, then Christly grace itself brings about the healing. Our main responsibility is to cherish prayerfully the Christly truths that heal; to desire to help others; and to know the truth of their real selfhood as Spirit's incorporeal man. God's presence operating in consciousness will do the rest.

One young woman tells of her joy when she healed a friend of a very severe and painful back injury. She says: "My friend could not move without acute pain. She had to be lifted by her family. I didn't know very much about giving Christian Science treatment, and I was not a practitioner listed in The Christian Science Journal. This was practically the first time anyone had asked me for help with a serious difficulty.

"But my thoughts were filled with the joy of understanding that God, divine Spirit, never immobilized man in matter. I prayed and thought of God's omniaction and man's reflection of that divine activity. I studied in the Bible the story of the palsied man whom Jesus had healed so quickly and easily. (See Matt. 9:2–8.) And I pondered Jesus' healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda, who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. (See John 5:2–9.) In some degree I really felt that the ability to move and walk is the evidence of man's unconfined activity as God's, Spirit's, expression.

"The healing had not come by evening. But I wanted to attend the Wednesday evening testimony meeting in my local branch Church of Christ, Scientist. I determined to put aside the feeling of responsibility for my one patient and just pray for the church service." The young woman concludes, "I felt so sure that man's spiritual activity as the reflection of God was forever unimpaired by suggestions of injury. I really didn't need to hear from my friend to know that she was and always had been eternally safe in God. But she did call the next morning to say that she was completely healed. And I felt the joy of knowing that the Christ was with me, enabling me to demonstrate spiritual healing."

We all can demonstrate the spiritual understanding and Christly qualities of thought that heal. Christ Jesus fully expressed this ability because of his natural unity with God, good. He is our Exemplar, our help, in showing us how to heal, and we can expect to learn how through obedience to his guidance.

Mrs. Eddy once wrote to a student of hers: "Christ is meekness and Truth enthroned. Put on the robes of Christ, and you will be lifted up and will draw all men unto you." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 247.} As we put on those Christly qualities of meekness, spirituality, love, and a pure desire to help others discover their life and health in God, the healing power of divine Truth and Love finds a natural outlet in the way we live.

Then we won't have to be concerned about whether we're good enough, or know enough, or whether people will want our help. With the Christ in consciousness, spiritual attraction is irresistible, healing is inevitable, and joy is life's daily blessing.

BARBARA-JEAN STINSON