About four years ago I began to have some pain in one of my hips while moving or standing still. I led a very active life—worked a full-time job, lived in the city, and walked a lot. I was also very active in my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, which I dearly love.

However, even though this problem went on for several months, I did not give myself specific Christian Science treatment because I was focused on other problems at work, which seemed overwhelming. I felt that my boss didn’t appreciate me, even though I worked very hard, and there was friction with colleagues in our department. I was praying about these problems but didn’t feel I was making much progress. I felt I was just keeping my head above water.

One day as I was running an errand on foot during my lunch break, I was standing at a stoplight waiting for the light to change, struggling with the pain in my hip. Suddenly the words “fitly framed” came into my thought, almost as if they had been spoken aloud. I wasn’t familiar with this phrase, but I had a sense that it was from the Bible.

As I proceeded to cross the street, I started thinking about these words. I reasoned right then and there that because we are truly ideas of God, my structure was not in matter—bones, joints, muscles—but was completely spiritual and therefore balanced, strong, and painless. I was indeed “fitly framed.”

I honestly did not think about that moment again until a couple of weeks later, when I realized that I did not have even the slightest problem or any pain in my hip. I couldn’t remember having any pain since that day when that idea had come to me. I had been instantaneously healed and had forgotten that there had ever been a problem. When I realized this, I looked up “fitly framed” in my Bible. In Ephesians we read that we are “of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (2:19–21).

In the Gospel of John, Christ Jesus spoke of his body as a temple (see 2:19–21). Mary Baker Eddy gave us the spiritual definition of temple in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of Love; …” (p. 595).

Even though I hadn’t been praying specifically about this problem, the Christ had broken through to my thought and healed me. As Hymn No. 202 in the Christian Science Hymnal so beautifully says: “The Christ is here, all dreams of error breaking, / Unloosing bonds of all captivity” (Rosa M. Turner).

My work situation also improved when I made the effort to see that my colleagues and I were fitly framed together as well—working together for good, as the spiritual children of God—so there need not be any friction between us. I saw more harmony in the entire department.

My life is full of healings from my study of Christian Science. Sometimes these healings have taken some time and required deep prayer and a humble willingness to “put off the old man” (Colossians 3:9). I’ve also had many quick healings. But this healing proved to me the power of Holy Scripture, interpreted through the understanding Christian Science brings, to heal instantaneously. I am deeply grateful.

Consuela H. Allen 
Arlington, Virginia, US