Injuries from a fall quickly overcome

Barbara L. Kennedy

Recently I assisted my husband as he replaced lamps in the dome of our branch church building. To do this one must climb a ladder to a loft leading to the attic above the dome ceiling. As I stepped on the top rung of the wooden ladder to come down, the step gave way and I fell onto the hard floor. The ladder crashed down on me, gouging my face in several places.

Hearing the crash, my husband came from the attic to the loft area. Without the ladder, however, he could not get down to help me. To relieve his concerns and to counteract my own fears I declared loudly, "I am all right!" and vigorously began to pray, silently affirming my oneness with God, the source of my being. With strong and loving encouragement from my husband, I managed to sit up.

The church custodian who was working in the building at the time heard my call and came. She lifted the ladder from me and helped to get my husband down from the loft. I made my way down the flight of stairs (supported by the handrail) and into the elevator. After we reached ground level, my husband helped me to a chair. There he washed my face, and I continued to replace fears with facts I knew about my true, spiritual identity as the unfallen child of God. Within an hour I was able to walk unassisted to the car to go home.

When I went to bed, however, concerns of injury and thoughts of helplessness persisted. Reaching out to God in prayer, I recalled the experience. As I did, a flood of gratitude welled up within me as I thought of how each need had been met in such a tender, loving way. A verse from Psalms became very real to me: "Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand" (Ps. 37:24). With my thought at rest in the ever-presence of God's tender love, I went peacefully to sleep.

In the morning I woke to these words ringing in consciousness: "Rise in the strength of Spirit"! I found that I was able to be obedient and lift myself out of bed. The complete passage from Science and Health is: "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man" (p. 393). True to this promise, I was in church that morning.

A flood of gratitude welled up within me as I thought of how each need had been met in such a tender, loving, way.

Five days later I traveled alone on a flight overseas. I joyously cared for a daughter's toddler and helped the family in other ways with their newborn infant. The facial cuts and bruises sustained from the fall had completely faded away.

Christian Science has been such a blessing to our family. I am grateful for a marriage built upon the rock of Christ, for the orderly ways our lives and those of our children are unfolding through individual reliance on God's guidance, and for the everyday challenges that have been met and continue to be met through glimpses of the Science of being.

Barbara L. Kennedy
Sacramento, California

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