I am learning to be grateful for every opportunity for spiritual growth and spiritual unfoldment.

Last winter I had such an opportunity. One Sunday morning in January I was in the parking lot across the street from our church. After finishing a conversation, I turned to make a quick dash back to the warmth of the building. Unaware that I was standing with my back to an angular guy wire that ran from the top of a utility pole to the ground, I caught my ankles in the wire, and my movement propelled me with great force, face-down to the pavement. I sprang up immediately, embarrassed to have made such a blunder. As I ran toward the building I noticed that blood was falling on the pavement, so I headed for the men's room to clean up, wondering if I would be presentable to teach my Sunday School class of lively, inquisitive young boys.

From the moment I fell, I had affirmed my oneness with God, but had not then thought of this happening as an opportunity for spiritual growth. Rather, I was thinking of it as a distraction to my teaching the class.

Some other church members had seen me, and help was immediate—both physical and metaphysical. Supporting words of comfort, and assurance of God's immediate care, accompanied the application of a bandage that covered a large cut in my forehead.

My initial thought had been to alert the Sunday School superintendent that a substitute teacher would be needed. However, I soon found I was feeling a strong conviction of God's ever-present care and of His governing the whole situation, and I felt free to teach the class.

The opening of Sunday School had been completed and it was time for individual classes to begin. The boys were wide-eyed with wonder and concern, but I assured them that God was caring for me and that they could help by praying with me to know that, as God's child, I was perfect, regardless of what I looked like. Their willingness was immediate, and we went on with our usual, lively approach to our lessons, discussing the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes, and a story from the Bible. The accident I had experienced was not a major distraction to the class, although there were some curious questions as to what had happened to my face.

Later that day I called a Christian Science nurse to determine if there was a need for cleaning any dirt from the wound. I knew she would not administer medicine, but rather would give whatever necessary practical care might be needed, while prayer was undertaken, according to the truths of the Bible as taught in Christian Science. The nurse was loving and assuring. She cleaned and rebandaged my forehead.

A calm, clear conviction of God's love, and of His infinite capacity to care for me, eliminated any lingering fear. The nurse commented that healing was already evident to her, and that the wound had already closed. Supported by the prayer of my wife, I was confident of God's omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent love, and now aware that this situation was an opportunity for spiritual growth.

As a Christian Scientist, I know that God is an ever-present help in every need. Within a couple of days the bandage was no longer needed, and the wound was healed. Now that event hardly seems to have happened, and there is nothing on my face to indicate that I had an accident.

The most obvious lesson I learned from this experience was that God's love is immediate and meets any need. As Jesus admonished us, we are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our brothers as we love ourselves.

B. Frederick Smith
Omaha, Nebraska