A little over a year ago I attended a college program for adults. I had been feeling tired, and was heading back into the dormitory. I misjudged the height of a step, and fell very hard on my forehead, into a concrete wall.

I was grateful not to lost consciousness. Slowly I tried to right myself, and realized that no one in the courtyard had seen me fall. I was glad I had only my own impressions of the accident to deal with, and I recognized that my thought, not my body, was what needed uplifting and healing.

The impact had been so severe that it seemed possible I might have cracked the skull bone. Although dazed, I made my way down a long corridor to my room. I was aware that a large bump had formed. Deciding to forgo breakfast, I sat quietly in a chair, affirming my inseparability from divine Life, God.

I realized God had never made a law that could cause me to suffer for having done good. Just that week I had spent time sandbagging in a river town that was besieged with floodwaters. Immediately I thought of this statement found in Science and Health: "We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought that we have transgressed a material law and must of necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure ourselves with the law of Love. God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion" (p. 384). This helped.

I had packed the night before, and found I was able to join my husband in returning to our home, about an hour's drive away.

Shortly after arriving I began to suffer extreme nausea, and called a Christian Science practitioner to pray and help in the important act of affirming my perfection as a child, idea, of God. Her help was immediate. She suggested I might consider being cared for at a nearby Christian Science nursing facility, but I felt comfortable being in my home. Nevertheless, the kindness that prompted her suggestion made me feel loved and valued, and had an immediate, salutary effect on my thought. The practitioner told me to feel free to call her any time of day or night if I felt I needed additional support and, again, that caring made me feel so loved.

During the night I woke with the specific desire to ponder understandingly the Lord's Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation (found in the chapter entitled "Prayer" in Science and Health). I felt a calm—but urgent—need to stay awake to the face presented in the interpretation of the first line, "Our Father which art in heaven": "Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious" (p. 16). It was reassuring to understand that harmony is a present and permanent fact about God's creation and that, in reality, my harmony had never been broken or disturbed by an accident.

The next morning I felt calm, free of nausea, and assured of healing. Gratefully, I released the practitioner. Even though I had an overnight guest, I was free to study quietly that day, and then to join in the activities the next day.

Some time after, I realized that I had several small bumps on my forehead. They seemed to confirm that some breakage had occurred and then mended. I asked the practitioner to join with me for one day in reaffirming that my spiritual identity had been untouched by a fall, and that therefore I could not bear any marks to the contrary. Shortly, I saw the marks had disappeared.

I am very grateful for the quick and effective healing that resulted from Christian Science treatment. There is no emergency beyond God's help and care, and you and I can safely depend on His laws to heal us.

Ellen Moore Thompson
Ballwin, Missouri