My husband and I were spending a week at a beautiful lakefront home with friends who were fellow students of Christian Science. The weather was beautiful, the location stunning, the friendships genuine. However, I found myself troubled by difficult family relationships. And although I was praying and studying the weekly Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly, I was not applying the spiritual facts to the family situation. 

About four days into our week together, I went into the kitchen to rinse a small cooler in the sink. Someone had left two large kitchen knives and two paring knives pointing up in the silverware basket of the dish drainer at the counter’s edge. In an instant, the cooler bumped the drainer and the knives came tumbling down on my bare leg. I dropped the cooler in the sink, put my hands over a bleeding cut in my leg and shouted, “This is not happening!” 

This wasn’t a shout of dismay, but a declaration of truth related to a thought that I had been praying with: If God is good and provides only good for all of us as His creation, then all of the bad that had appeared to be part of my life had to be completely rejected as in any way a part of my past, present, or future—or perceived lack of a future! Nothing that was wrong belonged to God or to me as His creation. 

In the immediate situation, my fear was that a vein had been cut. I was able to get across the kitchen to a small terrace where I saw our host far below, and I called out his name. He immediately ran up the many steps and was very alert and quick to assist me. I was grateful that he declared spiritual truths aloud with me as he wrapped a kitchen towel around my leg. We both acted calmly as we cared for the leg. Our host told me that the cut was not to a vein. 

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy shares this important counsel: “Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemption from disease and danger” (p. 411). The assistance from our host enabled me to more calmly address what needed to be healed: my thought. I knew that I could certainly pray calmly and expectantly for myself, just as I would for anyone else. I was able to focus on God and His love, which was present right there in that remote location. God was just as near in thought there as anywhere. On the basis of our understanding of spiritual truths like this, my friend and I knew that all would be well—and that all was already well in God. 

I spoke aloud “the scientific statement of being” (Science and Health, p. 468), which talks about God being Spirit, and man—meaning all of God’s offspring—spiritual. Our host joined me in this before going to get my husband as I continued to pray with these ideas. I was grateful for the brotherly love expressed by this dear friend. 

When the rest of the party came back inside, none of them saw evidence of the injury, but all expressed love and tender care for me. One friend even said, “I am supporting you. I don’t know what for, but I am supporting you.” This meant so much to me, and it helped me to know that, no matter what may have occurred, God, Love, was omnipresent and wholly meeting my need. 

As my husband and I sat quietly, our hostess came and shared such lovely healing ideas with us. Her tender affirmations of God’s ever-present love and law truly touched my heart. Being so lovingly cared for woke me up to the need to forgive myself for having been so upset earlier in the trip. It was wonderful to be reminded that God’s love is never absent, even if we believe that we are separate from the harmony that God gives us. 

By the time dinner was ready, the acute pain had lessened, and my husband and I joined the group to eat. We retired to our room soon after, but I found it difficult to find a comfortable position in bed. I emailed a Christian Science practitioner, who agreed to pray for me. Our very brief conversation brought me comfort and a great calm, and I had a good night’s rest. 

The next morning I was completely free of pain. I was able to join the group on a walk into town and participate in almost all of the activities for the remaining two days of our visit. The wound quickly healed. More importantly, I recognized the need to be alert to reject thoughts about others that are not from Love.

In reading a recent Bible Lesson, I was touched by the passages about blood not being the substance of our life. I reasoned that this also meant that the perspective that we are a product of or dependent upon ties with “blood relatives” has no bearing on our happiness, security, or identity; only our Father-Mother God does. To see and understand that God is our life and the basis of our joy is a beautiful new insight that I cherish today.

Deborah Huelster Thompson McNeil
St. Louis, Missouri, US