Article January 27, 1986 Issue

A flood of gratitude brings healing

MARGARET CHRISTENSEN

Once I heard an experienced Christian Scientist say that gratitude is a law. I had always known at a simple, grass-roots level what he meant, but the infinite, ever-widening, ever-developing meaning of gratitude was not brought home to me until some years later.

I was living alone in London with my twelve-year-old son, and I had been very earnest in my study of Christian Science. One night, on returning home late from visiting a friend, I saw my bus approaching on the other side of the road. I had started to run across the road when suddenly a car traveling at great speed came toward me. I ran back to the footpath, only to find that the car swerved the same way, trying to miss me. It hit me full force, but as it did, I found myself declaring with great clarity, "This isn't happening!" That instantaneous recognition—based on the spiritual fact of the allness of God, good—undoubtedly saved my life. However, my face was injured.

I was taken by ambulance to a nearby public hospital, where I was placed in a ward with many other patients. I refused all medication and injections, and the medical staff accepted my request very understandingly. I lay in bed all night simply flooded with gratitude. I've never known such a feeling: "Thank God, I'm alive!"

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Gathering the wheat
January 27, 1986
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