Article May 12, 1986 Issue

The stamp of Truth— "the impress of heaven"

ANTONIE V. DEMISCH

Recently, as I was using my rubber stamp on an envelope, I thought how impossible it would be for anyone to misread my address, for if a stamp says Hamburg no one could read it as Chicago! And it occurred to me that similarly man, God's image and likeness, as we read in Genesis 1:26, cannot be mistaken for anything but the beloved child of God, perfect and good. He cannot express anything but God's qualities.

Knowing this truth had brought me a wonderful healing shortly before. As I was arranging some purchases in my car in front of a supermarket, the car door suddenly slammed on my hand, catching my fingers in an iron grip. I quickly released the door with my other hand and then clung to the truth of my spiritual being, knowing that I was an idea of God and therefore could not be hurt in any way. Since man's being is wholly spiritual, it is not subject to any law of matter—even the one that calls itself an accident. Mrs. Eddy says in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, "Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection."^{Science and Health, p. 424.}

I stayed with this prayer—this scientific and logical way of thinking—several minutes, and the pain subsided a little. I finished my shopping, holding steadfastly to the fact that according to Christian Science there are no accidents. Science and Health explains, "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony."^Ibid. On my way home all pain was gone, so I did not even look at my hand. When I got home there was no trace of any injury.