Hand healed
Recently I was recording an audio program for The Mother Church. Walking back to my hotel, I suddenly found myself falling forward and stretched out on the pavement. I didn’t feel hurt, but when I stood up I discovered that the skin on the back of my hand had been scraped loose. I continued back to the hotel and telephoned a Christian Science practitioner for metaphysical help. She recommended that I call the Christian Science Benevolent Association in nearby Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, to have a Christian Science visiting nurse come to clean and bandage the area. The Christian Science nurse arrived within an hour, and shortly I was ready to return to The Mother Church for some important appointments that afternoon.
The next day the Christian Science nurse replaced the bandage. The third day I attended a meeting in Milwaukee. A Christian Science nurse there replaced the bandage, and the day after that the bandage was replaced by a Christian Science nurse in Minneapolis. After that point no bandaging was needed, and the healing took place quickly.
Throughout this entire procedure I was very grateful for the loving care of the Christian Science nurses and for their expertise in handling this comparatively minor need. I was aware that they were regarding the demand as really a need to see the non-fleshly nature of man and were depending on divine Mind to establish the immortal facts of my true spiritual being which had never been lacerated by an abrasive pavement.
I was also grateful for the protection against any more severe injury or infection. This was based on my conviction that under God’s control there is no possibility of accidents. Mary Baker Eddy explains the reason for this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “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” (p. 424 ).
I realized that it was not enough simply to feel that I was involved in doing God’s work and that this would be a protection for me. I needed to see that the only reality that was going on was divine Mind’s activity of spiritual ideas and that they would include an awareness of my eternal, spiritual identity. I recalled a demand for alertness that Mrs. Eddy set forth in Science and Health: “Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake” (p. 442 ). To me, mental malpractice meant any kind of wrong thinking. It could be my own wrong thinking about my identity as a material mortal and subject to physical ills or injuries or decline. It could also be general human thought imposing medical theories of ills and treatment based on the material view of man. And it could be malicious thought directed against the Christ-cure that destroys belief in false material desires and practices—the carnal mind resisting its annihilation. Jesus handled all forms of false thought through realizing God as infinite Love and perfect Mind.
This whole episode strengthened my desire to challenge a material view of myself and to value the purpose that God has set forth for me as His representative, man. I reasoned that man is consciousness made up of divine ideas and qualities. These divine ideas and qualities are coexistent with God, who is their basis and substance. They are timeless and ever present. Each idea is infinite in scope and therefore has a purpose that is unending, forever unfolding new degrees of usefulness and achievement. I rejoiced in committing myself to fulfilling this divine purpose and to seeing this divine purpose being fulfilled by every individual.
I am truly grateful for Christian Science, which has shown us how to exercise our spiritual sense to replace the mesmerism of material sense and rely on God to support and sustain and advance us entirely. This reliance on God enabled me to carry on 21 years of public lecturing throughout the world without missing a single date. While on the tour, I experienced sufficient healing of an inflamed shoulder in time to be on the platform the following Saturday and was completely healed one week after that. Also, I saw my wife healed of pneumonia as she deeply acknowledged God’s love for her as His creation. Many minor needs of safety and other details along the way were beautifully met.
As satisfying as the physical benefits of Christian Science healing are, to me the greater blessing is the ability to exercise our spiritual sense and know we are immortal now and are living in the kingdom, the consciousness, of harmony with the unlimited joy and love and progress that God provides.
Charles Ferris
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
