I had been away from Christian Science for about ten years when I had many personal difficulties pile up. Arthritis had made my hands and wrists very weak, and digesting food had also become difficult, as had breathing. I’d had enough! I wanted something to change.
I remembered my grandmother saying to “hit the books” for help, for a deeper understanding of God. By “hit the books” she meant to read and study the Bible along with any and all of Mary Baker Eddy’s writings, including the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. So, I began studying Christian Science again. When I did, I found some more of my grandmother’s words that she had written in the introductory pages of her copy of Science and Health. She wrote, “Read about 20 pages a day to complete in one month,” meaning to begin reading on the first page and to read the book from cover to cover.
I had occasionally dipped into Science and Health over the years, reading small passages here and there, but after I followed my grandmother’s advice, along with reading the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson each day, I began to notice beautiful changes in my life that I continue to be so grateful for. I was beginning to be able to use my hands and wrists again, and I knew that, as I kept studying, complete healing would follow. I trusted that if I could gain a deeper understanding of God, all the physical ailments would completely disappear.
As I read, I began to see clearly that matter has no life. We are each the spiritual reflection of God, and matter is not, cannot be, a reflection of God. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health: “Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. A partnership of mind with matter would ignore omnipresent and omnipotent Mind” (p. 275). And she adds, “To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is.” I was starting to understand that matter could have no pain, no arthritis, no digestion problems. I was experiencing merely a belief of pain, not God’s reality; matter does not have power of any kind.
I needed to be spiritually uplifted so that I could clearly see my own and everyone’s God-given right to health.
I had been studying for about a month when one morning, as dawn came, after I’d stayed up and read all night, I knew I was free. My reading had coalesced into a certainty that God was indeed with me, guiding and protecting. I felt the gentle touch of the supreme peace of God, Spirit. I realized my wrists no longer hurt and that I could use my hands in a normal way again. Later that day, I noticed I was able to eat food normally, and I began to eat foods that for years I thought I could not eat. Normal breathing took a few months longer to return, but return it did.
The lesson of the importance of this consistent, deeper study of Christian Science was brought home to me in a sweet way. I live in New Hampshire, and almost every day I drive past two ponds separated by a road. I used to see two swans—sometimes in the east pond and sometimes in the west pond. Then I started seeing a cygnet with the other two swans, and the three stayed all summer in the east pond. Then Hurricane Sandy swept through, and all three flew away. I didn’t see them all winter.
In the spring, I saw the youngest swan again, on the east pond, head down, foraging as I drove by. Then a week or so later, I saw its mom and dad on the west pond. I waited to see the three reunite, but for weeks they remained separated.
It occurred to me that until the young swan took to the air, it could not know its parents were close by. Then one day all three were swimming together in the west pond.
In much the same way, I came to see that I would not find the uplift I needed until, like the young swan, I “flew up” higher in consciousness. I had to get above mortal illusions to see my “right place” with God, divine Life, Truth, and Love, to see that I am always the perfect reflection of the perfect God. I needed to be spiritually uplifted so that I could clearly see my own and everyone’s God-given right to health, to truly understand that there is absolutely no life in matter, because God, Spirit, is the only Principle of all life. When I felt this uplift, healing naturally followed. It felt a lot like returning home. Not unlike the young swan, I was “reuniting” with my Father-Mother, God.
It brings me great joy to know that all forms of error can be repudiated with Truth. As Mrs. Eddy says, “If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit” (Science and Health, p. 239). Divine Love, our true Parent, is always present, waiting to bring us health, happiness, and joy. I am so very grateful for Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Science, and the peace and freedom I’ve found through earnest study that has helped me to take flight.
