Home and healing
I was traveling in a country far from home when I awoke one morning with cold symptoms and an upset stomach. At that moment, I just wanted to be home. As I thought about why I had this strong yearning for home, I realized that I wanted to be in comfortable, known surroundings so I could manage this illness with more ease. I instantly recognized that this motive was based on a faulty premise: that this disease was real and that I needed to fix it.
I had learned through my study of Christian Science that all disease is unreal. Disease can’t actually exist because God created everything good. So instead of trying to fix something that wasn’t real in the first place, I decided to think about home as a spiritual idea rather than a faraway physical location. The words “Home is the consciousness of Love” came to me. This statement is based on a line from the spiritual interpretation of Psalm 23 in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “. . . I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [love] for ever” (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 578). I also remembered that Mrs. Eddy relates home and heaven in this statement: “Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God” and defines heaven, in part, as “harmony” and “bliss” (Science and Health, pp. 254, 587).
No wonder I longed for home—there is nothing harmonious or blissful about sickness! I knew that our consciousness of divine Love isn’t dependent upon any physicality, people, or place. I reasoned that I had this consciousness right where I was, wherever I went. I felt a wonderful, calm sense of being at home then and there.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
