Testimony of Healing March 8, 1999 Issue

Quick recovery from a fall

David J. Goldsmith

About a year ago the ideas expressed in an article in The Christian Science Journal were especially helpful in highlighting for me the importance of consistently bringing thought into accord with the divine reality of man's relationship to God as His perfect child. I soon had an opportunity to put this fundamental truth to practical application. My wife and I were trimming some trees in our back garden. As I was leaning out toward a high bough, the ladder I was using slid out from beneath my feet. During the brief moments while I was falling toward the ground, the thought that came immediately to mind was, "Accidents are unknown to God." The complete statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is, "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" (p. 424).

Although I felt stunned and winded when I hit the ground, the opening words of a familiar hymn came instantly to thought, just as if someone were saying them aloud to me: "Everlasting arms of Love / Are beneath, around, above . . ." (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 53). I felt completely safe and embraced in our heavenly Father's tender, loving care. By that time my wife had hurried to me, and she was calmly declaring spiritual truths aloud. I vividly recall her saying "the scientific statement of being" with such conviction that there was no doubt in my mind that "all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" (Science and Health, p. 468).