In the winter of 2011–2012, I was swimming in the pool at an apartment complex, where my husband and I were “snowbirds,” and I realized I was feeling no pain. I was so grateful for the freedom to move around, because in mid-September I had fallen down a flight of wooden stairs and done a face-plant on the cement floor of our basement. The pain was excruciating, and I was bruised and bewildered. 

At the time this happened, my husband and I were entertaining a couple we knew in our home. My husband asked me if I could sit up. I could not. My chest hurt, so he put a pillow under me. Then I asked him to call a Christian Science practitioner. When I gasped out my tale of woe, she asked, “Are you hurt, or are you protected?” I knew what the right answer was, but I was in such pain that I couldn’t respond. She heard my hesitation and lovingly said, “The reason you are protected is that your substance is Spirit, and because you are spiritual, you have no relationship to gravity.” I found that logic transformational, and I know that was the beginning of the healing.

My husband got a washcloth and helped clean me up. I was able to move my arms and legs. I felt I may have injured a rib, but that was never medically confirmed. My husband gently helped me into bed, but I was unable to lie down without pain, so he propped up some pillows behind me and shared spiritual truths about God’s protecting power. Our guests were also quietly supporting. 

After they went home, my husband stayed close by me reading the Christian Science Bible Lesson and testimonies from periodicals and sharing spiritual truths. I called the practitioner several times a day that week and each time got new inspiration. 

I considered the synonyms for God and how they related to me—what they convey about man and what they do not convey. For example, since God is Principle, there is unchanging law keeping me safe and protected. Principle is unchanging good, so that unchangeableness is part of my being. Since God is Truth, I have the Christly consciousness to hear and understand the word of God. I have no Life to live but the Life God has given to me as His reflection. I cannot fall out of God’s embrace, or be bruised or damaged. Since God is Soul and God is One, I am God’s reflection. There are not two of me, the spiritual and the material. I am spiritual—period. There is no mortal, material me. My improvement was rapid except for the internal pain.

When I was dealing with internal pain, I often worked with hymns and sometimes just held on to a phrase all day long. “From strength to strength we go,” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 65) or “All harmonious, He doth move” (No. 263). One of my favorite passages in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is in the Preface, “The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus’ time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation” (xi). This page goes on to quote from the Bible—that “Immanuel, or God with us, . . . set[s] at liberty them that are bruised.” Why, that is a promise for me! I thought. 

One of my great hopes was to continue our plan to fly to Seattle to attend my son’s wedding and to dance at the reception. And two weeks later, we did. I was on the mend, and the plane ride was quite comfortable. At the wedding, one of my other sons saw me and said, “What happened to your lip?” All I said was that I took a tumble. 

I did a lot of smiling that weekend and no one else said anything about the fact that my teeth were chipped (I got them fixed when I returned from traveling) or that I had a “fat lip.” There was continual physical progress, and I was in contact with the practitioner during this trip, too. My husband’s annual association meeting was three weeks later, and we drove to Boston and then to Chicago for my association. I was so grateful for the peace in the car, for the hymns we listened to en route, and for constant progress.

I loved working with the 23rd Psalm and the 91st Psalm, especially the thought of our living under the shadow of God’s wing. What a safe place that is! As autumn progressed, I was able to sleep comfortably lying down and turn over normally. And we kept our plans to spend the winter in Southern California. There was no more pain and I completely recovered. 

I am so grateful for this Science of the Christ that heals as Jesus healed and that it is a Science our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, so selflessly gave the world. I am also grateful for the steadfastness and unflappability of the practitioner and for the tenderness of my
husband.

Ruby Poznick
Chesterfield, Missouri, US

I am one of the friends mentioned in the testimony. The initial picture before us was grim. But Ruby’s husband, John, went immediately to her and calmly but firmly declared that she had never left Love’s embrace. He then asked me to go upstairs for a washcloth and towels.

It was that moment that changed how I have since approached my own healing work. What I had actually expected John to say was for me to go upstairs and call for an ambulance. His response showed me that we were witnessing something special. I was starting from a scene of an accident that needed healing, but I perceived that John was starting from the basis of life in God that cannot be altered. Ruby was soon resting upstairs, and my wife and I drove home for the evening knowing that she was safe and in good hands.

Glenn Williams
Ballwin, Missouri, US