‘Hand in hand’ with God
Several months ago, I ordered a large stainless steel table for our outdoor patio area. As soon as it arrived, I excitedly began putting it together. I love assembly projects like this and was happy to tackle it.
According to the instructions, it would take 20 minutes to assemble the table. I began by lifting each piece out of the box and moving them onto our patio. While doing this, I dropped the heavy top piece on my hand. I quickly reached for a paper towel and wrapped my bleeding hand. Though I didn’t think my hand was broken, I could not move it.
I began to pray immediately, focusing my thoughts not on the physics of what had just happened, but on the metaphysics of what was really true about my being. I saw that I needed to establish in my thinking the fact that divine Spirit, God, is All-in-all and that man is His image and likeness (see Genesis 1:26, 27 ).
My first thought was that the “hand of God” indicates wholeness and completeness. In other words, I recognized that divine Love is guarding, guiding, and holding us in perfect care. I also found it helpful to think about how we conceptualize the idea of hand to have a more spiritual meaning. For example, to lovingly reach out to others and “give a helping hand.” I also thought of the concept of holding on to good and grasping and getting a handle on right ideas.
As I sat there thinking of what a hand signifies, I saw it could also represent divine intelligence, guiding us in every decision we make. This reminded me of my oldest son, who was about to start his first year of college. There had been an overwhelming amount of choices, paperwork, and interviews to wade through before he ultimately decided which school to attend. My younger son was just getting ready to look at colleges and go through the same process. I envisioned the daunting decisions that lay ahead for him. Then I received this lovely angel message: “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies” (Psalms 23:5 ). I couldn’t help but laugh. There I was, preparing a table in the backyard. How comforted I felt by this sweet message!
I knew God was unfolding goodness and mercy for my two boys, for me, and for all God’s children. Even as we make those big life decisions, facing our “enemies” of doubt, fear, second guessing, or worry, divine Love is giving us everything we need at every moment.
I also thought of this statement by Mary Baker Eddy, “Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 424 ).
I knew that chance had no power to harm me because God’s law of harmony is at work in my life, in my home, and right there in my backyard. Christian Science—the Science of Mind—is not subject to guesswork. Omnipresent, divine Mind doesn’t need to guess, wonder, or speculate if His children will be safe and supported because Mind knows only goodness and truth. And we reflect that divine intelligence of Mind. I felt with certainty that we all are constantly under God’s omnipotent, abundant care and that all was well. More important for me in that moment, I knew that all would be well for my sons and our whole family in every big decision we’d make in the future. This brought peace, confidence, and dominion to my thought.
With these truths firm in my thinking, all worry vanished, and the pain and bleeding stopped. I felt such freedom, and that I was “hand in hand” with God. I could move my hand again and finish assembling the table.
I continued to pray over the next few days, trusting that through Christian Science, I would experience healing. I thought of my prayer as an acknowledgement of the natural “spiritual agreement” (see Science and Health, p. 333 ) between God and man—a promise of God’s ever presence and love for His perfect creation. Within the week of the incident, where a large gash and bruising had been visible, there was no longer any mark on my hand, and I could move it with complete freedom.
Heather Bauer
Suwanee, Georgia, US
About the author
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