Coram Deo

As I scanned down to the end of a friend’s e-mail, concluding his signature were the words coram Deo. We live in a time of fascinating valedictions and closings to written communication. How uniquely interesting to see this Latin mystery—I was going to have to look this one up.

It turns out that coram Deo translates loosely as “in the presence of God.” In other words, my friend was affirming his allegiance to live in God’s presence, under His authority. How beautiful.

Christian Science reveals this fundamental fact of being: that man is never really outside of God’s presence. The presence of God and the presence of man are never two separate states of being, though it may seem otherwise. The reality is that there is only the unity of God and man. To me every healing in Christian Science is accompanied in some way by the realization of the presence of God.

One day I was on a late afternoon walk through a favorite city park. A beautiful snowfall covered the ground. This park is located in a spectacular valley that includes almost 400 scenic acres of trees, wildlife, wetlands, and craggy rock formations. Once you drop into the valley, the surrounding bluffs create a feeling of seclusion, and it is possible to spend the majority of a hike with no visual evidence of the surrounding neighborhoods.

At the halfway point of my hike, which normally lasts about 90 minutes, dusk had settled in and darkness wasn’t far behind. I came across a bottle that had been dropped along the trail. The park had always been a special place for me, so I picked up the bottle intending to carry it out.

It wasn’t long after, that I slipped on an icy descent. As my feet went out from under me, my arms and hands instinctively went to my sides to break the fall. I didn’t have time to release the bottle. It shattered, still firmly in my grasp, cutting deep and wide into the heel of my hand.

Because of my isolation, I quickly became very afraid. I felt as though I was in a “far-off place.” Yet I knew God was not far off—a far-off God would have been no refuge for me. I turned in prayer to realize again that I was in the presence of God and His Christ.

Christ Jesus consistently rejected the evidence of the senses and revealed health, purity, supply, safety, and eternal life where their opposites so clearly appeared to be. The Christ, the spiritual idea of God, enabled Jesus to heal. Jesus promised, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also” (John 14:12 ), and Christian Science shows us how we can begin to demonstrate in some degree the power of God that Jesus exemplified. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Unity of Good: “Christ cannot come to mortal and material sense, which sees not God. This false sense of substance must yield to His eternal presence, and so dissolve” (p. 60 ). What a message of hope and certainty—that the false sense of substance, in which originates every human problem, is dissolved coram Deo, in the presence of God.

I knew I needed to draw near to God and all that is substantial. In her primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy writes, “… the spiritual man’s substantiality transcends mortal vision and is revealed only through divine Science” (p. 301 ). The student of Christian Science practices this discipline of diverting his eyes from mortal testimony to experience the vision immortal. This vision, filling our consciousness, expels the mortal and reveals the actuality of divine law, the law of God, resulting in a change in our human experience.

In the moment after I fell, it was imperative that I continue this walk in the Spirit. In the Bible, Timothy is counseled to “keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings” (I Timothy 6:20 ). This was no time to give my attention to the “profanity” being spewed by the carnal mind, or material sense. Profane is defined by Webster as “to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt.” That certainly describes how the carnal mind would treat that which is most sacred: God and His idea, man. In the past, when I’ve passed someone on a busy city street shouting profanity, I’ve found myself repulsed and wanting to turn away immediately. Isn’t this how we should respond to the “profanity” of material sense? This was no time to give my attention to a picture suggesting I was hurt, isolated, or in danger.

I knew I needed to draw near to God and all that is substantial.

The healing method of Christian Science consistently affirms the presence of God and His creation, and of nothing else, even in the face of material testimony. There in the park, my thought turned through prayer from a mortal sense to the spiritual. I affirmed the allness of God, Spirit, and the integrity of God’s reflection, which includes me. My goal was to refute and deny any thought supporting the image of a vulnerable and injured mortal. Step by step, through this method, I affirmed that I was not in matter or subject to the suggestions of the carnal mind, but safe in Spirit. I trusted that, embracing only what was spiritually true of me, I would witness Christian healing.

In that moment I realized I was not far from the home of a friend who is a Christian Science practitioner. That is where I went next. My friend welcomed me warmly and took the practical step of cleansing and bandaging my hand. This example of Christly love gave me a deeper conviction that God was with me, caring for me. I knew my life was safe and secure, in the presence of God. I did not request Christian Science treatment, but appreciated the loving, practical care.

On returning home I continued in prayer. When I unwrapped the bandage and cleaned my hand the next morning, the laceration was sealed and there was no distracting pain or discomfort. Physical scars are generally expected to last a lifetime, yet the scar on my hand disappeared within several months, demonstrating that no scarring mortal claim can abide in the consciousness of immortal truth.

That valediction at the end of my friend’s e-mail reminded me of this healing. Though it took place more than a decade ago, this healing continues to bless and inspire me. That is because the purely spiritual healing method of Christian Science never sets out simply to change a material condition. Rather, this method of prayer moves us beyond any sense of sin or separation from God, and champions the sacred truth of God and man as one in being. This leads to a holy sense of reformation, and is evidenced in physical healing. The practice of Christian Science is the practice of rejoicing in the presence of God. Coram Deo!