Years ago, in the early 1980s, I left my hometown for the city of Boston, where I was enrolled in a women's business college. One morning, during a shower, I felt a large lump in my breast. I was afraid, especially since a relative had passed on after an illness involving this same symptom.

As a student of Christian Science, my immediate response was to turn to prayer for healing. I phoned a Christian Science practitioner, who lovingly addressed my fearful thoughts with strong truths about my spiritual identity, and reminded me of a verse from the Bible that promises, "The king's daughter is all glorious within" (Ps. 45:13). After our conversation, I felt so strongly that my purity was intact and nothing in my family history could taint the pure relationship between me and my true, one and only relative, my divine Parent, Father-Mother God. It was as if light quickly poured into my thinking, and I don't recall ever again having an aggressive attack of fear about this issue.

Over the next couple of weeks, the practitioner and I kept in daily contact. One of the other references she had me ponder is found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious—as Life eternally is—can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 495). "Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought" meant to me that I could see God's likeness as manifested in qualities of purity, beauty, and grace. Shedding spiritual light on the situation allowed no room for fear—just pure calm and peace.

During this time, the practitioner asked me to study the words pure and purity and their synonyms in the Bible, Mrs. Eddy's writings, and the Christian Science Hymnal. I remember writing pages upon pages of notes on "pure" and "purity" references. This passage from Science and Health was particularly helpful to me: "... the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity" (p. 241). I was beginning to see more clearly that purity was the basis of my true being. This fact provided a firm basis for my spiritual growth and progress. We also talked about how I expressed God-derived purity each day, and I was encouraged to take notice of this spiritual fact.

An analogy the practitioner shared helped me cast out fears about heredity. It was the first time I'd heard it, and I've shared it with many others since. When you're driving a car and the truck in front of you splashes mud onto your windshield, you naturally turn on the windshield wipers to clean the mud off. That mud cannot jump up, chase after the car, and jump back onto the windshield. The mud is completely gone, washed off, gone for good.

Well, in this analogy, my family's past history with illness, and aggressive societal beliefs about heredity, would be the "mud," or impurity, that couldn't continue to pursue me (or anyone) when the "windshield wipers" of spiritual sense were turned on. Illness doesn't have any power or reality to chase after us and touch us in any way, because it doesn't come from God, the source of good only.

I continued with my study of the words and synonyms for pure and purity, soaking in the truth about my true nature as a whole and complete child of God.

The fearful thoughts lessened as they were being exchanged for healing thoughts of purity. Within three weeks, while taking a shower, I noticed that the lump had entirely disappeared. The cycle of fear in my thinking was completely gone.

Learning more about my real, pure identity as God's child was the biggest reward. This quote from Science and Health sums up my healing: "The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man's real existence as a child of God comes to light" (pp. 288–289).

JENNIFER WOOD
DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA, US