Have you ever felt dead and buried in self-pity, loneliness, and doubts about a failed relationship? Take heart, because you're primed for a resurrection experience!

Even the world's Saviour and Way-shower, Christ Jesus, wasn't spared the trial of human yearning for support and understanding. Just before his trial and crucifixion, when loyal friends turned away from Christ Jesus, he turned to God for guidance. Under society's slander, he looked to his divine Father for the only approval he needed. When he was betrayed and crucified, what was his answer? Spiritual resurrection! He rose higher in his understanding and demonstration of man's relation to God, and this blessed him and the whole human family.

In Science and Health with key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy writes of his experience, "The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge from his foes, a place in which to solve the great problem of being" (p. 44). Later on the same page she says, "His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demonstrating within the narrow tomb the power of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense."

Jesus' example was a beacon light for me when my marriage of eight years failed. I found myself enshrouded in unrelieved darkness, in great need of resurrection from sorrow and despair. I felt like one of the scribes and Pharisees of whom Jesus said, "Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness" (Matt. 23:27). Quite a different sepulcher from that in which Jesus worked out his resurrection! Gratefully, I awoke to the demand for inward purification.

I stopped rehearsing scenes from the marriage and refused to analyze who was right or wrong. Heartfelt prayer and humble communion with the Father turned me from ruminating on belief in past or present pain.

Because I had experienced healing through prayer in Christian Science before, I knew that the Bible and Science and Health were sure road maps to restored happiness and wholeness. I dug deep into the study of these two books.

I found that as we patiently persist in purifying thoughts and motives—a key point in Christian Science—we can begin to feel that no one is a victim of anger, injustice, sadness, or regret. In reality, each of us dwells forever in God's kingdom, in which all are His children. Not one is ever separated from His all-encompassing, all-providing love. In His kingdom, man is never a victim, never a victimizer. Wrapped in His embrace, we can stand firm, dismissing these preposterous lies about ourselves and others.

Since God is all good and man is God's image and likeness, we can only have all good. This good is here now, regardless of temporary material testimony. As our thought and life are increasingly filled with spiritual goodness, the shades of darkness disperse. We deny error a foothold in consciousness. We begin to yield without reservation to God's law of ever-present harmony.

Correcting unattractive habits of thought is freeing. Modeling my forgiveness after the divine pattern, I found that I was arriving at a forgiveness so complete that it was as if mistakes had never happened.

With God leading the way, new challenges were turned into triumphs. Small or large, they were welcome signs of individual spiritual growth. For example, I discovered greater confidence and expanded horizons in running an independent household. Yearnings to fill a void with human companionship yielded to God-supported joy that doesn't depend on person. Human busyness or blind attractions, which might seem quick fixes to unwanted solitude, were dismissed as unfulfilling. Also, I could see any temptation to relax moral standards was simply out of sync with the buoyant spiritual standard that was taking me higher in understanding love.

Such lessons illumine our path and prove far more satisfying than attempts at humanly sought solutions. The result? We celebrate our innate purity and goodness. We rejoice to establish higher levels of competence and integrity. As mental darkness is dispelled, the brilliance of our Father-Mother's love for us dawns in thought. Love cleanses our heart, warms it, and makes us feel whole again. We see more clearly than ever before that just as Jesus so strongly claimed his sonship—his perfect relation to the Father—so we can claim ours.

At one point, the realization of my precious relation to the Father burst into consciousness. I had been prayerfully considering Psalm 45, when I awoke to the inescapable fact that since we are all God's children, I too am the King's daughter. Moreover, the Psalmist plainly proclaims that "the king's daughter is all glorious within" (verse 13). No sepulcher here, whited or otherwise! I saw that this shining truth was God's perfect antidote.

The stone rolled away. The walls of human opinions and beliefs about a failed relationship no longer could claim me. My thought was free to be solely defined by God. I felt fully alive, consciously reflecting His beautiful, irradiant light.

Yet as healing continued for me, a last, important discovery awaited. Unwittingly, as a result of experiences in my marriage, I had adopted a prejudice against men at the same time that I had adopted as fact a less-than-glowing opinion of myself. Now I refused to be duped by either of these arguments. A proper spiritual perspective always reveals our true nature. In this way we are freed from the imposition of human opinions. We can conclusively know the truth of everyone's individual identity as God's perfect, loving and loved man.

For me this healing took place over a period of several years, but it was worth it. I learned that God answers each individual need right where we are. We emerge refreshed, whole, compassionate, softened, happy. Expanded spiritual vision shows us our completeness. We rejoice that we are truly, once and for all time, "Whole of that plague."

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy describes our Way-shower's experience in these words: "There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great stone must be rolled from the cave's mouth; but Jesus vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place, crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting victory" (p. 44–45).

We can all make this everlasting victory our own and share it with others. We can all walk forth free.