Foot and ankle injury quickly healed

Joanne Hedge

"Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Ps. 23:4). This verse from a cherished psalm supported me recently during a quick healing of an injury I had while maintaining my garden. When I stepped down backward, I misjudged the distance, slipped off a ledge, and fell into a flower bed, twisting my foot and ankle beneath me.

I heard myself say in that instant, "I am intact!"—my relation to my loving, ever-present Father-Mother God, as well as my being, was intact, at that moment and always. I have found that immediately declaring wholehearted trust in divine Love establishes and motivates the expectation of complete healing. I finished up outdoors while being grateful for God's presence and power.

Later that evening, however, pain set in, and before long I was hopping on one foot and then got down on "all fours" to get around the house better. A crutch would have seemed convenient at that point, and that's when I remembered the verse from the twenty-third Psalm about God's rod and staff comforting me. I pondered passages in the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, and was led to those that not only met my immediate physical need but addressed other thoughts I'd had concerning neighborhood and civic issues I was involved in. My cup truly "runnethover" as the Psalmist wrote (Ps. 23:5); divine Love was answering my every need, guiding and governing my thoughts and actions.

I woke completely healed, free of pain.

A chapter in Mary Baker Eddy's Miscella neous Writings entitled "Judge Not" was particularly helpful to me. It contains this passage: "When thought dwells in God,—and it should not, to our consciousness, dwell elsewhere,—one must benefit those who hold a place in one's memory, whether it be friend or foe, and each share the benefit of that radiation. This individual blessedness and blessing comes not so much from individual as from universal love: it emits light because it reflects; and all who are receptive share this equally" (p. 290).

Together with the psalm, my study resulted in a strengthened spiritual freedom concerning myself and others, and I slept peacefully that night in "green pastures" by "still waters" (Ps. 23:2). I woke completely healed, free of pain and swelling, and I joyfully attended church.

I am also deeply grateful for the Christian Science Quarterly Weekly Bible Lessons. That week's Lesson contained passages such as this one from the Bible that so perfectly met both the physical and the civic duty situations: "As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations" (Isa. 61:11).

My heart was then, and is now, full of praise.

Joanne Hedge
Glendale, California

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit