Testimony of Healing January 29, 1996 Issue

One day I stepped from the side door of a van and injured my...

Donald F. Nelson with contributions from Mabelle M. Nelson

One day I stepped from the side door of a van and injured myankle. It seemed to me that I could have either a broken or a sprained ankle. I chose to believe it was a sprain because I thought it would heal faster than a break. I was laid up, however, for six weeks!

That was many years ago, and even though I was a Christian Scientist at that time, I didn't realize until later that I had another choice, which should have been my first choice. But this "third choice"—for complete freedom based on God's care for His spiritual creation, man—has stuck in my mind ever since. We read in Second Timothy, "Be instant in season, out of season" (4:2). I've taken this as an urging to affirm immediately the truth of my relation to God, to counter any error. An accident has no power to harm, but can be promptly overcome by the recognition of man's genuine, spiritual identity.

This understanding of my ability always to choose spiritual reality first helped me more recently when a friend and I were splitting rock in an abandoned quarry to dress the foundation across the front of my mountainside home. We were on top of the quarry, facing the outer edge of the quarry wall. I was using a pry bar on the rock when the flat rock broke with a bang. I would have gone over headfirst, except a thought came, "Spin, and dive!" How I did, I don't know, but I did as directed. About six feet away was a small pine tree, and I grabbed for it. Before reaching it, the same mental voice said, "You are protected." Had that been my thought, it would have said, "I am protected." Simultaneously, I was reaching out to God in prayer, knowing I was in the "everlasting arms of Love," as the hymn puts it (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 53).