While I was swimming in a lake with my family one day, someone jokingly moved an inflatable float as I was midway through a dive. Instead of going through a hole in the float, my head crashed into the float itself. The impact hurt, and my head and neck felt uncomfortable the rest of the day and into the following morning. It was tempting to be afraid, but I trusted God, as I’ve learned to do in my study and practice of Christian Science. 

I recognized that I needed to obey Christ Jesus’ teachings from the Sermon on the Mount, including, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12), and forgive the family member who had moved the float. Praying with Jesus’ sermon, which has been a dependable guide for me over the years, I was able to forgive. I found that easy to do, as I knew this individual hadn’t intended to harm me. And by forgiving them, I was able to stop thinking about how the accident had transpired.  

A few weeks before this incident, I had been inspired to pray about preventing accidents as well as healing the effects of accidents if they occur. I pondered this sentence in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science: “Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony” (p. 424).