A reliable healing law

My wife and I took a flight recently. We sat in the plane on the tarmac for several minutes—then the engines roared, propelling us down the runway until we reached critical speed and the plane began to lift off. We eventually reached an airspeed of about 500 miles per hour at 36,000 feet of elevation, where the outside temperature was negative 35 degrees Celsius.

As I sat there, I wondered: Why are so many of us willing to trust our lives to the principle of flying, but comparatively few feel able to trust God, the divine Principle, in the same way? 

To me there are clear similarities between the principle of flight and the divine Principle, which is God, that enabled Christ Jesus’ healings. They are laws that have always existed and always will. We can count on them. The laws of aerodynamics and of God, “the divine Principle of healing” (see Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 112 ), are demonstrated every day.

Let’s first consider flight. Bernoulli’s principle, which enables an aircraft to rise and stay aloft, makes flying reliable. The principle of flight has always been around—and has been exploited by birds and insects for millions of years—but men and women had to prove this principle before we could start taking advantage of it. The Wright Brothers flew the first airplane in 1903. The first jet engine was demonstrated in 1939. Today, there are an average of 93,000 flights a day—roughly the equivalent of one flight taking off somewhere in the world each second.

Now, let’s consider the divine Principle, God, that enabled Jesus Christ to perform wonderful works more than 2,000 years ago. Jesus healed the sick and the sinning wherever he went, and demonstrated “the divine Principle of healing” for his disciples and for all humanity. Has divine Principle changed since that time? The Bible tells us that man was created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27 )—has man’s status as God’s likeness changed? The answer of course is, no.

Christian Scientists today rely on the same laws of spiritual healing demonstrated by Jesus Christ. He commanded that we should follow his example, namely: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8 ). These spiritual laws are explained by Mrs. Eddy in her book Science and Health, and they have resulted in countless healings every single day. I’ve seen these laws at work in my life numerous times. Once was when I was standing in the airport security line and suddenly realized my laptop had disappeared from the conveyor belt. This computer had all the files relating to my consulting business on it, and its loss would have been devastating. But rather than panicking, I quietly prayed, knowing that God was divine Principle—that His creation must express order and harmony. I knew that divine Principle was guiding me and everyone at the airport right in that moment.

Christian Scientists today rely on the same laws of spiritual healing demonstrated by Jesus Christ.

I told the security officers what had happened, trusting that they, too, were being guided by God to respond appropriately. The government of divine Principle doesn’t leave anyone out. I waited patiently for several minutes, continuing to pray, reasoning that since harmony was a law with divine power behind it, it couldn’t suddenly be taken out of our experience. Soon the security officers learned that my laptop had been taken by someone in the security line, and cameras had captured the person who took it. I don’t know what measures were taken, but the computer was soon recovered and given back to me just moments before I boarded the plane. I gave thanks to God for another example of the reliable operation of spiritual laws.

Suppose you and I were standing on the shores of the Galilean Sea with Jesus and his disciples, watching as the Master healed someone of a disease—when suddenly a jet plane flies overhead. Which would be more amazing to us: the airplane or the healing? Healing, just like powered flight, relies on a law that can be demonstrated. The Messiah clearly demonstrated how to heal “all manner of sickness and all manner of disease” (Matthew 10:1 ), even overcoming the grave. He clearly demonstrated “the divine Principle of healing.”

The book of Ephesians, written after the ascension of Jesus, talks of the time when “we all [will] come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (4:13 ). Reaching “the stature of the fulness of Christ” includes knowing what Jesus knew—the truth that we are spiritual, made as God’s perfect image and likeness, which means that we can rely on God to heal.

We should trust divine Principle to heal with as much confidence as we trust the laws of aerodynamics to carry us into the air in an airplane. Jesus promised his followers: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12 ). We can follow his example—remembering that divine Principle, God, the source of these healings, operates at all times and in every conceivable circumstance.