Article September 21, 2015 Issue

Designed to reflect God

Michael Upton

Throughout my life I have had many opportunities to learn and grow in Christian Science by reading and praying alone, but I’ve also found that there’s a lot to be learned from sharing concepts and spiritual ideas with others. This was the case last summer, when I spent several months as a counselor-in-training [CIT] at a summer camp for Christian Scientists.

My “major” that summer was rafting, and, being a CIT, I was responsible for the safety of all the campers around me and also the care of the equipment. The way the rafting program works is a fellow counselor and I lead a boat of several campers, and most days we get an opportunity to take the boat down different rapids on the river.

It was midway through one day when the boat accidentally hit a rock and I was knocked out of the boat. When I fell out, I smashed my shin against a rock before I pulled myself back in. It was not immediately painful, but after a few minutes my leg hurt a lot and I saw that there was a deep dent in the shin bone, where I had struck the rock. At first I didn’t feel as if I needed to pray, but later that night when I continued to feel pain, the idea came to me that God was always with me and there was no other power, nothing that could separate me from the love of God.

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