Article October 5, 2009 Issue

never separate from God

BY GLORY HOLZWORTH

I've had many quick healings in Christian Science, from prayer alone. But I've also experienced wonderful healings that demanded I stay with my prayer for a longer period of time. One of those occurred five years ago when I severely injured my foot and ankle. I felt compelled at the time to dig deep to discover God's care and intelligent direction; not to allow pain, incapacity, or time, to concern me before a complete healing came about—and to find an even greater understanding of what really heals.

In the fall of 2004, my husband and I were out walking along the edge of a cascading brook in New Hampshire when I caught my foot between two large slippery rocks. As I fell, I heard several cracking sounds and felt severe pain. With some effort, my husband and a passerby were able to help me up. Using their shoulders as crutches, I hopped back to the car. My foot and ankle became very swollen and discolored. I couldn't move them or put any weight on them. It seemed certain that bones had been broken.

As we started home, I called a Christian Science practitioner to help me pray. She talked about the fact that I could never be separate from God or His goodness, and shared part of a quote from Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health—one that I wouldn't have expected. Here's the entire statement: "The wintry blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for heaven" (p. 57). Surprising as those words seemed, I understood them immediately. I hadn't mentioned it, but I'd been preoccupied with the feeling that I was somehow separated or severed from good, from God and His love. I saw that the condition of my ankle was actually linked to this state of thought.

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