As the departure date for a trip approached, the need to find healing for an illness felt urgent. In the Christian Science Bible Lesson that week, I found a simple, direct statement of Christian healing: “He [Jesus]stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them” (Luke 4:39).
For me, that phrase “he stood over her” described the presence of the Christ—not just a place where Jesus stood—attending to Peter’s mother-in-law. It also announced the authority the Christ brings to any situation. Mary Baker Eddy describes this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness” (p. 332).
If someone in authority is speaking, you give your full attention. For me, that meant no more nagging thoughts like “When will I be out of this bed?” I needed to turn away from worry and listen only for God’s thoughts. Next came a question: When Jesus “stood over her,” did he see a sick mortal? Science and Health explains: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick” (pp. 476–477). I saw that Jesus’ view of Peter’s mother-in-law enabled healing to occur. Here was further instruction: Accept the spiritual perspective. Drop the mortal view.
This single Bible verse still had more to show me. There must have been confidence, expectancy of good, and joy in the presence of the Christ. Joy often indicates that healing is at hand because joy is free of fear and acknowledges the presence of God. Now I could tell things were moving forward because I actually felt joy. False responsibility and fear fell away. I was able to walk around. I continued my prayer, grateful for the spiritual ideas I was learning and the progress I could see.
More Bible verses came to mind: “I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it” (Revelation 3:8), and Jesus’ statement, “I am the door” (John 10:9). To me these ideas meant that the Christ always holds open the door of human thought to spiritual reality, to God’s kingdom.
An illustration made this clearer for me: A man is in a jail cell. The door is behind him. He sees only three concrete walls. Despair settles in. What if he turns around and finds the door wide open? Does he spend one more minute in the cell? No!
For me, the concrete walls were like the feelings and circumstances of sickness. Staying fixated on the physical symptoms was like ignoring available spiritual freedom. This analogy made me turn from the material context and look for the spiritual reality. Mary Baker Eddy instructs us: “Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality” (Science and Health, p. 261).
Finally, an open door in a room of concrete walls would be a source of light. Jesus told his followers, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). And in the epistle to the Ephesians, we read,“Walk as children of light” (5:8). I realized that knowing about the open door wasn’t enough. The prisoner would have to turn toward the light, walk through the door, leave the jail cell behind, and act on the freedom awaiting him.
Turning from a material to a spiritual view produced sudden progress. I wasn’t stuck anymore. I resumed my normal activities and moved forward with preparations for the trip. By evening, there were no more symptoms of an illness.
The spiritual perspective of any human situation is an “open door.” Listening to Christ can turn us around!
