Testimony of Healing June 3, 2013 ISSUE

Proving the truth

Virginia McCoy Britt with contributions from Julie Oline

It has been my privilege to be a member of The Mother Church for over 70 years and a practicing Christian Scientist for over nine decades. My gratitude for Christian Science and its teachings and for Mary Baker Eddy is unbounded.

Early one morning this past winter, as I was getting ready to go to the YMCA for the water aerobics and ballet classes I take, I decided to run across the street to mail a letter. I did not realize that the temperature had gone down to 20 degrees and the road was a sheet of ice. As I crossed the street, I slipped and fell backward, falling flat on my back and hitting my head very hard on the pavement. I didn’t lose consciousness, but was stunned.

My first thought came from Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, that it was “impossible for man … to fall from his high estate” (p. 258 ). And I repeated “man cannot fall from his high estate” several times, applying this truth to the situation. This question then came to me: Is there any place where God’s arms of love are not beneath, around, and above? (see Christian Science Hymnal, No. 53 ). I answered, “No!” Then I said to myself: “Well, what are you doing lying here in the middle of the street? Get up!” I got up and walked carefully across the street and back into my house. 

As I entered my home, I thought of this from Science and Health: “Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your divine right” (p. 227 ). At this point, my head was hurting, but I continued to pray and decided it was OK to go to the “Y” for my classes. 

On my way there, traveling just a short distance away, I prayed with the words to Hymn No. 3 in the Christian Science Hymnal.

A grateful heart a garden is,
   Where there is always room
For every lovely, Godlike grace
   To come to perfect bloom.
(Ethel Wasgatt Dennis)

By the time I reached my destination, my head no longer hurt, and I went in and enjoyed my two classes.

When I arrived home later that morning, I looked up the entire citation in Science and Health, “Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his high estate.” I was very grateful to prove the truth of this statement.

Virginia McCoy Britt
Olympia, Washington, US

Mom is an inspiration to me as a Christian Scientist. I’m the fourth generation Christian Scientist in the family. My great-grandmother came from Italy in the late 1800s, before Washington became a state in 1889. She brought my grandmother, who was three, and my aunt, who was one year old. They settled here as pioneers. Great-grandma had a physical problem and was introduced to Christian Science. She was healed. When I think about it, this must have been when Mrs. Eddy was still alive and Christian Science was brand new in the West. 

Julie Oline
Tumwater, Washington, US

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Testimony of Healing
Limits and burdens fade
June 3, 2013
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