Have you ever dismissed a spiritual truth that’s come to you because of its familiarity or simplicity? I know I have. But one day I read an account of a woman hiking in the mountains that changed my thinking about this. The woman spotted some beautiful quartz shimmering in the sun and bent down to pick up what she thought was a loose rock, but it wouldn’t budge. Her hiking companion laughed and said, “Oh, that one’s attached to the state of Colorado!” (see Marian C. English, “The joy of working on the right side,” The Christian Science Journal, May 1998).

To me, the visible quartz, likely exposed bedrock—the solid rock beneath the surface that makes up the earth’s crust—is analogous to the spiritual truths that come to us from God in prayer. No matter how simple or well known these are, they come from God and therefore have all the substance, law, and structure of infinite divine Love underlying them, upholding their power to heal. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, explains, “God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 6).

All truth is of God and is inseparable from Him. When a spiritual truth comes to us, we are experiencing God’s presence in that moment. That is a profound concept to grasp.

I saw I needed to open my thought to understand the depth and power of this truth.

In reading Science and Health, Truth’s revelation to and through the book’s author, we are able to discern the infinitude of Truth and the infinite applications of its statements. For instance, reading the quote above, we could reason that if God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows, then neither is God separate from the love, faith, joy, and strength He bestows on His beloved creation, including His children. The list could go on forever. Truth is infinite, is God, and the truths He gives and the spiritual understanding of them result in healing. And because these truths are spiritual—expressions of eternal Spirit, God—they are never irrelevant, nor do they ever wear out. 

Here’s another example: “A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive” (Science and Health, p. 463).

At one time, this quote frequently came to me when I prayed for healing answers. I’d often heard other Christian Scientists refer to it as well. I began to think, “Got anything else?” However, as I grew spiritually, I realized that this answer was coming to me directly from divine Mind, God—the same Mind that Jesus proved is the only Mind and that governs the universe. I saw that I needed to more lovingly and joyously accept and heed it. Instead of looking at this spiritual fact as a metaphysical “pill” to take, I needed to open my thought to increasingly understand its depth and power. The real need wasn’t to grasp it intellectually but to apply it to whatever situation I was dealing with and have absolute faith that it was the sacred revealing of present, spiritual reality. 

Christ, Truth—the light of the world—and the Holy Ghost or divine Science are always at work in human consciousness to enlighten and cleanse it, to expel fear and wrong thinking, with healing as the ultimate result. This is the Word spoken of in Hebrews as “quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (4:12).

It’s not the words themselves that heal, but the concept of God, Mind, underpinning them.

The way in which Truth comes to us, including the words that convey it in each individual case, helps us to recognize and accept the reality and holy activity of God. The familiarity or simplicity of the words should never deter us from accepting, understanding, and experiencing the healing truth we need to hear and respond to. 

It’s not the words themselves that heal; words are just a means by which ever-present spiritual reality may be revealed in a given moment. It’s the concept of God, Mind, underpinning the words that corrects and restores order, control, and harmony. The Word of God, which Christ Jesus embodied, goes forth with all the healing power of infinite Love. Therefore, it bears abundant healing results.

At one time, my husband and I were trying to move a bedroom set using our pickup truck. We had gone only a short distance and had stopped for the third time to try to secure the king-sized mattress that kept threatening to break loose. Feeling frustrated, I halfheartedly turned to God in prayer for help. What came was this: “Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind” (Science and Health, p. 124).

At first I wondered what that had to do with our situation. But as I became quiet, the meaning was instantly clear. We didn’t need to struggle to hold things in place; divine Mind was already doing that. The divine consciousness was governing the whole situation. It is the divine laws of God that stabilize, secure, and strengthen. All I needed to do was discern this, accept it, have faith in it, and give my consent to seeing it manifested. I did this, and soon we moved forward with no more incidents.

Then one winter, that same quote about adhesion, cohesion, and attraction came to me when my husband, plowing snow on our steep driveway, lost control of our truck. Again, I recognized that God was revealing what was truly taking place, and this spiritual recognition resolved the situation. The truck’s sideways slide stopped, and the tires grabbed. Both these experiences taught me not to discount or dismiss a precise healing truth—no matter how simple or familiar—because it is God that gives it to meet the present need.

Like the small piece of quartz that was part of that mountain, a spiritual truth may look small and ineffectual. But each spiritual fact loved, trusted, and applied has all the power and tenderness of infinite, divine Love undergirding it and is a mighty force for healing in the world.