Painful ankle quickly healed

Cindy Snowden

I went hiking on a strenuous mountain path one day last year, and came home with a painful ankle. A friend advised me: “Stay off it! If you think you hurt your ankle, give it a rest. Let it heal before you use it again.”

The next morning the pain was more intense and I was unable to get out of bed. So I began to pray, recalling my friend’s advice to “stay off it.” I thought about what that might mean spiritually, and I started to focus my thoughts on God and my perfection as His reflection, rather than focusing on a painful ankle and what I should do to make myself more comfortable. In the past, when I have held my thought steadfastly on God and His qualities, I’ve soon seen a marked difference in my body, and I’ve found harmony and healing.

I wanted to understand that I was intact, whole—forever. That might seem like wishful thinking, since conventional wisdom would say that at any time an accident or disease could again take my mobility or health away. But in learning the laws of God, Spirit, through the study of Christian Science, I have discovered that I am made in the image and likeness of God, not materially, but spiritually. As such, I am not subject to age, accident, or disease—I am only subject to God. God is fully functioning, intact, always harmonious, and as His idea I include all of these qualities as well.

My ankle was painful and abnormal looking, though—so how could I both mentally and physically “stay off it?” I knew that healing in Christian Science doesn’t depend on time—it’s about now, not sometime down the road—so I could with conviction hold on to thoughts of God and not dwell on a distressing material picture. I recalled that all form and function have a spiritual foundation since “All things were made by him [God]; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Because my being and substance are spiritual and intact, I couldn’t be broken, twisted, inflamed, or deformed.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “If we look to the body for pleasure, we find pain; for Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit, we find its opposite, matter. Now reverse this action. Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (pp. 260–261).

Sitting there in bed, I began to fill my thought with God’s qualities. I thought about flexibility, fluidity, strength, purity, perfection—the list went on and on. And the more I focused on God, the less I noticed my ankle. I was “off it!”

After about 15 minutes of prayer, the ankle was totally healed and I could use it normally again. The swelling and discoloration were gone, and I got out of bed. When I recognized God as the source and function of all activity, I could stand firmly and harmoniously. I walked normally all day, and that afternoon I was even able to go on another hike without any problem. I have been completely free since. The only treatment I gave was mental, relying on divine Mind as the source and foundation of all being.

Cindy Snowden
Denver, Colorado, US

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

From the Editors

As murder rates fall

March 19, 2012

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit