A Friend told me his dad had been healed instantaneously, through his own prayers, of the effects of an alarming accident. His father was an electrician who, while at work, had had one of his eyes accidentally punctured by a welding iron. Yet, before he had left work for home, his vision was perfect, and there was nothing but a red dot where the puncture had been. I asked how his father had accomplished this feat. My friend answered in an offhand manner, "Oh, he simply never put up with error."

Although I nodded knowingly, I didn't understand how one could "simply never put up with error." How had it even been possible for his dad to have remained calm enough to pray?

I turned to the Bible for some light on these questions. In Matthew I read of a leper who came to Jesus and said, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." Jesus responded by touching him and saying, "I will; be thou clean." Immediately, the man was healed of the disease (8:2, 3). Apparently Jesus did not put up with error either! This kind of healing was not exceptional in his ministry; it was the norm. As I continued to read through the New Testament, I noted that Jesus was never overwhelmed by the situation at hand.

In the past I had thought the healing accounts related in the Bible were miracles Jesus performed for only a few, in order to prove his divine origin. I had believed they were attention-getting devices used to forward Jesus' teachings, which, if heeded, would bring eventual salvation. I had felt healings were examples of the perfection offered in the afterlife (if you made it to heaven), having no bearing on the here and now.

My friend's dad, however, was proving that Jesus' healing work is relevant today. He was a student of Christian Science, the law of God discovered by Mary Baker Eddy, who believed that "the Bible contains the recipe for all healing" (Science and Health, p. 406). Mrs. Eddy wrote Science and Health, a companion book to the Bible, to explain the healing law she had discovered in the Scriptures. She states in this book, "The term Christian Science was introduced by the author to designate the scientific system of divine healing." She adds that the revelation of this Science includes "the proof, by present demonstration, that the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an ever-operative divine Principle" (ibid., p. 123).

The Bible, then, is the authority for our trusting in the healing power of God. The very first chapter tells us that God created man in His own image, that He blessed him, and saw all that He had made as very good (see Gen. 1:26–31). Since God is Spirit, His image, or offspring, must be spiritual. Because God blessed His creation, we can feel loved, cared for, protected. And because God saw that His creation was very good, we are—in sum, substance, and totality—very good right now, and we can progressively prove this.

We can heal, following Jesus' example, not by ignoring apparent sickness, injury, or discord, but by acknowledging and understanding the spiritual facts of creation and realizing the fundamental falsity of any other concept of God or His creation. Jesus was never anxious about the outcome when confronted by disease, accident, sin, or lack, no matter how desperate the situation seemed, because he knew evil had no foundation or support in divine reality.

Thus, it is possible for us to remain calm in the midst of disturbing situations; to throw off error and to know the truth. Truth-knowing requires the Christly perspective, which is based upon spiritual law. It requires spiritual vision. We must see beyond the outward appearance to behold the spiritual facts. In the understanding of God's, Truth's, allness, there is no room for error of any kind. Holding to the allness of Truth, we see God's expression of health, holiness, and purity in man manifest now—we experience healing.

Science and Health explains the Christly perspective this way: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy" (pp. 476–477). He knew that man, God's child, was made in God's image, and that there was never a break in that relationship, that there is never a moment when man can be separated from God's goodness—never a crack in which error or evil can get a foothold.

Still, I asked myself, how could I demonstrate this perfection in my own life? I continued to read the Bible and Science and Health and was becoming more and more convinced of God's presence, power, and goodness, but I still didn't understand how to "just say no!" to what wasn't Godlike. The way became much clearer to me, though, one day as I was driving down traffic-jammed highways to a conference in which I was the primary speaker. I was late, ill prepared, and I had laryngitis. But I was learning that the outward, physical sense of things is not an accurate appraisal of what is really going on. I turned to God in prayer and affirmed that I was His child—spiritual and "very good." I pondered the Bible verse "In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). I knew that my true home was in God, that I was in His care and about His business no matter where I was humanly or what I had to accomplish. These thoughts helped me lose sight of the picture of myself as a hopeless mortal doomed to failure. I started to realize that the root of my problems was not physical but mental. Therefore, in order to solve them I needed spiritual ideas from the divine Mind, God—a new, spiritual point of view.

My friend's comment about his dad kept coming to mind: "He simply never put up with error." It occurred to me that "putting up" something meant making room for it. I thought about putting up guests. I thought, here's the answer to the laryngitis problem: I won't let anything unlike God be my houseguest; I won't put it up, let it get comfortable or settle into my thinking. I won't make room for it.

I had a tape of Christian Science hymns playing in the car, and I love to sing. I had been wanting to sing along but it hadn't seemed physically possible. Then the light came: Sing anyway! Nothing could keep me from expressing Godlike qualities of joy and harmony.

I started to sing along. I could hear myself rasp and squeak, so I turned up the volume and sang with a glad heart. I was now literally able to stop listening to error. Before long, I could sing above the tape easily, comfortably, and clearly. I had a completely full voice. Not singing, I felt in this instance, had been putting up with error, making room for it. Singing anyway, I was consciously siding with God and listening only to the divine report that all is well.

Minutes later I pulled into the conference headquaters. I had enough time to review my material and to rearrange it in a way that made the presentation clearer. I was on time and in full voice. Afterward, I was even rated one of the top speakers at the conference by the audience.

Filling your thought with Truth, you too will find there is no room left for error.