Deeper understanding brings healing
I was sitting on the living room floor, hanging out with friends, talking, and eating snacks. As I was enjoying my favorite sweet and salty popcorn, a piece rolled off my lap onto the floor. Without missing a beat, I picked it up and put it in my mouth. I thought nothing of it, because it had barely touched the ground. But later, when I started having some strange symptoms and didn’t feel well, I wondered if there’d been some germs on the popcorn when I’d eaten it.
This was a strange thought for me, because I’d grown up in a family of Christian Scientists, and I had also attended Christian Science Sunday School. From these experiences, I’d really internalized the idea that God is All and all good. And this meant that something like germs or sickness couldn’t have power or even exist, since a God who is good couldn’t create anything bad or harmful. It had felt so natural to accept that when I was a kid, and I’d never given it much more thought.
That night, I kept going back to the spiritual fact that health and goodness are real, so germs can’t be, and thinking about how simple it had been to understand that as a child. I didn’t understand why I seemed to be experiencing the effects of germs now, if I’d already accepted the truth of their unreality.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.