My family and I watched the recent movie adaptation of Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo’s classic book. It’s a story set in the years around the French Revolution. We were moved by the characters’ experiences of misery and loss, hope and triumph, and the ending that encompassed all in a rousing refrain. At one point, the lead character, Jean Valjean, sings, “To love another person is to see the face of God.”

Through the lens of my study of Christian Science, I could appreciate the sentiment, although perhaps in a slightly different way than Hugo intended. In the opening chapter of the Bible we are assured that man is made in the image and likeness of the Creator of the universe, God, whose creation is entirely good (see Genesis 1:26, 27). In contrast, the second, allegorical, chapter of Genesis sets up the concept of original sin and man’s fall from grace.

Christian Science teaches that Genesis 1 is the accurate account of God’s creation. And, in fulfilling his role as the image and likeness of God, man must naturally express the attributes of the Creator. Consequently, I reasoned that “to love another person is to ‘be’ the face (image or expression) of God.” This view doesn’t allow for separating people into categories of good and evil. It encompasses all creation, even if our experience testifies otherwise. In that light, the “bad guy” in Les Misérables, Inspector Javert, would have to be seen as an inherently merciful man. But how is this possible?

Once I experienced an unfair situation that required just that kind of insight into the nature of our true being. 

As I struggled to overcome feelings of injustice, I experienced a serious problem with my lower back. One night I awoke in such severe pain that I found myself unable to move. I felt that I needed to get up, but when I did, I began to lose consciousness. 

I was on the lower level of my home with no one awake and no phone nearby to call a Christian Science practitioner. Reaching out to God for help, I said aloud: “God is my life! I am in God’s consciousness, so God is conscious of me!” 

Within moments the struggle to stay conscious passed, but I was still in too much pain to move. I knew I needed to pray and that it would help to study a book that has been pivotal to my experience of healing all sorts of problems. That book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, was written more than one hundred years ago and has been used as a resource by members of my family for generations, for healings of all kinds.

The book identifies man, as mentioned in the Bible verse above, as God’s image and likeness. In her description of man, Mrs. Eddy says, “The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit.... Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique” (Science and Health, p. 475). I felt confident that a clearer understanding of this would heal me.

I reasoned that “to love another person is to ‘be’ the face (image or expression) of God.”

Fortunately, a family member was available to help me with household responsibilities, but after a couple of weeks of praying with little relief, I was frustrated. Friends and relatives urged me to seek medical treatment. I realized that I did need medicine, but not the kind they suggested. Relying on “the medicine of Mind” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 252), I needed greater doses of spiritual understanding.

Two ideas came to me, and the first was that I needed to forgive the people involved in the unfair situation. If I expected to experience perfection, painless and untainted by error, I had to apply that blueprint to all involved. 

In Les Misérables, it seemed impossible to see the main character Jean Valjean’s tormentor (Javert) as God’s likeness, but that is precisely what needed to happen, even though the mercy Valjean showed was contrary to all the “rules” about human law and justice that Javert had clung to so tightly. So, in my situation, I prayed to express forgiveness and rightly identify the people involved. 

I also found that I needed to address a second issue, of knowing without a doubt that the right understanding of man heals in every situation. I realized that I had been impressed by stories of people who had not experienced healing after prolonged periods, and the suggestion came to me that I would never regain full mobility. The thought of never walking freely, much less being active in horseback riding and running, was heartbreaking for me.

I called a Christian Science practitioner and asked her to help me pray about this. She agreed and reminded me that Mrs. Eddy had included 100 pages at the end of Science and Health, pages where readers tell how they’d been healed by reading the book—and that Mrs. Eddy did this to prove without question that Christian Science heals. The practitioner told me to study this chapter, called “Fruitage,” that day. I had read this chapter before and confess that I never considered it pivotal to my practice of Christian Science. But this reading assignment proved critical to my healing.

What I read put to rest any doubt that there could be a problem, including mine, too big for God. In fact, as the “image” of God, it is impossible for me to step away from God or experience anything that the Creator is not experiencing. I cherished this assurance and knew that any evidence otherwise could not stand against the power of true spiritual identification.

By the end of the day, the pain in my back had greatly decreased. Within a couple of days I was pain-free and back to my normal schedule, taking care of a grade-school child and managing my home, as well as enjoying recreational activities. 

In the ending scene of Les Misérables, there are scores of jubilant people who sing about freedom from oppression. Like these banner-waving characters, and the testifiers in the chapter “Fruitage” in Science and Health, I rejoice that the activities of forgiveness and steadfast commitment to faith allow us to “ ‘be’ the face of God” in all situations.