I am so grateful for the immediate help I recently received through prayer and Christian Science treatment. I had spent all day walking in a large city, and at the end of the day I needed to take a bus to another large city. Upon arriving in this other city, I was planning to walk to a friend’s house.  

During the day, I sustained an injury to my ankle, which caused considerable discomfort. When I got on the bus for the two-hour ride, I was in great pain and couldn’t put any weight on my foot.   

However, I was so grateful to be a Christian Scientist because I knew I could pray and expect healing. I started thinking about God’s goodness. I felt in awe that each one of us always has access to God’s goodness and to healing insights from God. We are in reality God’s image and likeness, and if we are only willing to recognize our true life in Spirit, then we can begin to recognize God’s infinite goodness, which is far better and more reliable than we might imagine it to be.  

I prayed for much of the bus trip, silently affirming “the scientific statement of being” from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, which begins: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all” (p. 468). 

It was clear to me that as much as it might seem that the world is governed by material laws, God’s spiritual laws actually govern the entire universe, including each one of us, showing that so-called material laws are not really laws, but beliefs. I affirmed the spiritual law that, because God is Love and I am God’s pure spiritual creation, I am able to express love in all of my movements, which would preclude experiencing injury or pain.   

Just as the bus was about to approach my stop, words from the New Testament glimmered in my consciousness: “And immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength” (Acts 3:7). These words are included in the story of Peter healing a beggar who couldn’t walk. The word “immediately” caught my attention because it seemed that any minute I was about to be like that beggar, out on the street and unable to walk. Those words from the book of Acts left me in awe that the early Christian healers didn’t view healing as a drawn-out process, but instead as an instantaneous response to the realization that life is spiritual, not material.  

I was humbled that the God from Bible times is the same God right now and forever. God is the same power, authority, and lawmaker today as He was then and always will be. 

The bus pulled up to my stop. I stood up and walked normally without experiencing any pain. I was so grateful to be healed through Christian Science. The ankle has been fine ever since.

Shelly Richardson 
Eugene, Oregon, US

And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

Acts 3:8