"You never know where a good idea will come from," a Christian Science practitioner once said to me. This was proved to me in an unexpected way. A line from a movie, reminding me of what was spiritually true, inspired and healed me—at the same time revealing a lighter side of divine Love's guiding.

My husband and I had planned a road trip to visit friends and attend a family celebration. Before leaving, I began to experience physical difficulties, including a rash and what appeared to be infection in several areas of my body. Though severer and more widespread, the symptoms were similar to a yeast infection for which I'd been medically treated years before. I was in extreme pain and didn't want to go anywhere. Nevertheless, we'd experienced many healings through Christian Science prayer alone, and my husband's encouragement was compassionate. Remembering the times prayer had healed me, I consented to go, trusting divine Love to guide my prayers and heal me.

When we arrived, we had an active and nice day visiting with our friends. But that evening I again experienced a great deal of pain. Longing for some relief, I asked my husband to buy a lotion my parents had used when I was a child, to soothe a rash. While he was gone, I asked myself, "Where am I putting my trust?" I really wanted to depend on Christian Science alone for healing because prayer always includes spiritual growth. I wanted to feel God's presence—and better understand my spirituality as His child. This realization was in itself a great relief, and I was happy when my husband returned without any lotion.

The next day he went to the family event, and I decided to stay back at our motel to pray. All morning I studied the Bible and Science and Health. I started with the Christian Science Bible Lesson. Healing ideas from Science and Health were very helpful. For example: "The demands of God appeal to thought only;" wrote Mary Baker Eddy, "but the claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, appertain to matter. Which, then, are we to accept as legitimate and capable of producing the highest human good? We cannot obey both physiology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, and one or the other must be supreme in the affections" (p.182).

As I became more aware of the mental nature of what appeared to be a physical condition, I was convinced that I would be healed, and that these ideas were not theoretical, but a foundation for effective prayer. I prayed to see concrete results, and that as God's spiritual expression, I was untouched by physical conditions.

I wasn't sure why, but after lunch I turned on the TV. Surprisingly, I found the message that brought home the truths I'd been pondering all morning. It was in a movie depicting how some teenagers, for a prank, concocted computer images of an imminent attack on the US. When the teens realized the consequences, they admitted to what they'd done. But the adults, mesmerized by the images, were still convinced they were real. The teens pleaded, "You're looking at the wrong picture!" The computer images had given a false picture, however convincing.

I suddenly saw that I'd been looking at the wrong picture of my identity. It was clear that what appeared to be physical symptoms were no more real about me than the picture of war in the movie. It was revealed to me in a way that I could easily understand, relieving me of any sense of burden about the condition. In fact, I knew in my heart that I was already healed because the illusion of disorder and pain in my body had vanished from my thought. A day or so later the rash and infection, pain and discomfort all disappeared and did not return. That was 15 years ago.

I'd found the healing truth I needed in an unexpected, humorous way, proving to me again that Christian Science not only heals physically, but brings home spiritual lessons that last a lifetime.

MARY JULIA KEPHART
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY, US