What’s really going on here and now?

When we are faced with the fear of communicable disease, one helpful way to pray is to distinguish what seems to be going around from what’s really going on. Through the study of Christian Science, we learn that the only thing ever and always going on is the all-embracing love of God. “In him,” the Bible tells us, “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28). 

God, infinite Mind, created all and knows all. And, as we read in the first chapter of Genesis, God knows all that He created to be “very good” (verse 31). This is the true, spiritual view of life, in which man includes only the good that God is always expressing in him.

One helpful way to pray is to distinguish what seems to be going around from what’s really going on.

Contrast that with the material view, in which man appears to be separated from God and vulnerable to dangers such as contagious disease. The media are often dominated by reports of people affected by widespread illness. But we can see these reports, and the health theories underlying illness, as putting forward a false view of God and man. The truth is that right where disease appears to be, divine Love is in fact ever present, holding man in its all-powerful, protective care.

A clear understanding of this truth heals, as I had the opportunity to prove one morning some months ago. I awoke with the symptoms of an illness that was reported to be going around and that people near me were experiencing and talking about a lot. 

I began praying by seeing everyone, including myself, as embraced in all-enveloping divine Love, in eternal Mind. I knew no one could really feel or “catch” anything outside this all-inclusive source of being, the perfect Life that is God, because there is no outside to infinite Mind. Harmony is the only reality. I felt protected, and I knew everyone else was also protected from the mortal lie about man as susceptible to attack. We could all actually feel God’s healing
presence. 

I felt better and at peace, but I also sensed that I needed to go deeper in my prayer to find complete healing. Just before I became ill, I had devoted a lot of time to helping someone who showed no appreciation for my efforts. While I was being still, listening for the Christ message I needed for healing, the thought came loudly and clearly: “You are still ruminating over this person’s ungracious actions—still holding on to the idea that she wasn’t expressing lovingkindness, wasn’t expressing God.” 

I had to admit that I’d been believing there was someone who lived outside God’s allness and goodness. I knew immediately that I needed to let go of my false concept of what had been going on and affirm that this dear one was in reality God’s image and likeness, the expression of divine Love and Truth. And, as I did, I saw that since we were both ideas of the one Mind, nothing could ever have been communicated to us or between us except love. Suddenly, I felt—and was—totally free of all the symptoms I had been experiencing. 

Right where disease appears to be, divine Love is in fact ever present, holding man in its all-powerful, protective care.

Then, right after that, this friend called to apologize and explain. But I had already forgiven her. I told her that all was well, and I embraced her in love—the only thing that is ever here.

When we learn that there is only one infinite, wholly good Mind, which is governing all of its ideas in perfect harmony, we’ll understand that what’s really going on must be good. There’s no place in divine Mind for anything else. With this understanding we know we are God’s perfect creation, beloved and protected, cared for and embraced in His abundance of good.