One Sunday morning, I came out to do our morning farm chores and discovered one of the horses lying down in his stall and unable to get up. Over a few weeks leading up to that morning, this dear horse, Henry, had seemed to be experiencing a loss of energy, appetite, and joy. The situation appeared serious, as it’s believed that if a horse does not get back up, the outcome can be dire, and I had to immediately reject the suggestion of fear. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, tells us in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously” (p. 392).

I began to say “the scientific statement of being,” also found in Science and Health. The opening lines are: “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). I knew that this horse’s true identity was perfect and intact and that he could never fall or be limited or hurt.

I called for my family—my parents and my two kids—to come out and help. We all were praying and singing hymns together as we tried to get the horse on his feet, but nothing seemed to be working. At the same time, I was trying to reach a Christian Science practitioner but was unsuccessful. As I stopped to just listen to God to know what I needed to do, the name of a practitioner overseas came to mind. I called him, and he picked up on the first ring. After I relayed the situation to him, commenting, “He can’t get up,” the practitioner said, “Know that he never went down in the first place.” That broke the mesmerism of fear. I knew this innocent one was free, just as God had made him. I thought about the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible, where it says that “God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good” (verse 25). God’s creation never falters or is anything less than good, and is therefore perfect.