My high school's district gymnastics meet was fast approaching. We would be competing against the best teams in the district to determine who would go to the state meet. Our team had made great progress in the previous few years, and we were now one of the top two teams in our league. I was one of a handful on the team who would participate in all four events—balance beam, floor exercise, uneven parallel bars, and vault—so it was crucial that I be healthy for the competition. The trouble was that I had badly injured my knee and was having difficulty walking, let alone practicing my routines.

I had been attending the Christian Science Sunday School, so it was natural for me to turn to God in prayer for healing. My mom and I talked about how we could rely on God, Spirit, knowing that my strength came from Him—and not from muscles. We talked about what a good activity gymnastics was, and all the ways I expressed God when doing it.

The Bible tells us that God created man in His image and likeness. Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health: "Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science" (p. 475). I needed to see that as God's perfect child I could only reflect His qualities—beauty, grace, strength, joy, health. Injury and weakness are not part of God's creation; therefore the suggestion that I could be experiencing them was a lie.

I was continually checking my knee to see how the healing was progressing. When it seemed that the knee was not better, I became discouraged and impatient. All that I had been praying about made sense to me, and yet my knee did not seem to improve. Why was this? I wondered. I knew there was something more I needed to understand.

Through my prayers I soon realized that I was outlining how this healing should occur and keeping my thought on the body instead of on trusting God. Yes, I was turning to God. But I began to see that my main goal was to be rid of the physical injury so that I could compete in the meet, rather than to grow closer to Him. I saw my motive needed correction. I realized that if I believed that God, good, was the only power, I had to trust in Him wholeheartedly and keep my thinking close to Him even if the healing wasn't yet apparent.

Science and Health tells us: "The facts of divine Science should be admitted,—although the evidence as to these facts is not supported by evil, by matter, or by material sense,—because the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God's reflection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence" (p. 471). If I really believed that I was the spiritual reflection of God, I couldn't be looking to the body, matter, to confirm this. I saw that because God, Spirit, created me as His reflection and He is the only power. He would sustain me.

My coach told my mom he was sorry I wouldn't be able to compete. But after my mom and I talked, she told him not to count me out—that I planned on being there! Although my knee wasn't completely back to normal, we felt that it had improved enough for me to compete safely.

The day of the meet arrived. The floor exercise was my first event. It was also my best and favorite. I knew my mom was up in the stands praying for me as I got ready to do my routine Right before I went onto the mat a friend whispered to me, "Go out there and be a transparency for God." I understood this to mean that I was to express only that which has its origin in Him, allowing nothing unlike Him to enter my thoughts. So, I went out there, not to win or be "the best," but to express God's beauty, joy, strength, and grace. I really wanted to glorify Him!

After I completed the floor exercise, I realized that I had not thought about or felt discomfort from my knee at all during the event. I was able to compete in the other three events, too, free from pain. To my surprise, I ended up placing second in the all-around competition! I was amazed to read the headline in The sports section of our local newspaper the next day, which said, "Soph Berschauer Shines ...." The article mentioned our team's second-place finish and my performance on the floor exercise. I knew that I had been a transparency for God.

After the meet, my mom and I kept praying. A couple of days later the knee was completely healed. I saw that, as God's image, I could only reflect health and wholeness. And I had the perfect opportunity to prove this the next weekend when several of my teammates and I competed at the state competition, where I placed tenth on the floor exercise!

The biggest lesson for me from this experience has been not to outline how healing should take place, but to put my trust in God all of the time, looking to Him for the assurance of my uninterrupted perfection. God alone is power, and we should not limit the possibilities for proof of His power. If our goal is always to glorify Him, we'll express His nature more and more. And as we do, we really can't do anything but shine!