On a warm afternoon last May while coming into our house through the laundry room (which is part of the garage), I felt a sharp pain in my right foot. Looking down, I saw what appeared to be a rattlesnake, disappearing under the washing machine. (Later I described the snakebite to experts at a local nature museum. They confirmed it was that of a rattlesnake.) Since we live on the Mojave Desert in California, we had been aware of the presence of snakes in the area. But they had never been a problem.
Now I came into the house and immediately began to pray, knowing that none of God's ideas could harm another. I told my husband of the bite, so that he could support my work. Since we are both lifelong Christian Scientists and have had many proofs of God's care, Science was the only remedy I even considered. A great sense of love filled my consciousness—love for all that God creates, including what mankind calls a poisonous snake.
I went about my activities, still holding to these truths. Later while getting the laundry cart from between the washer and dryer, I saw a snake—apparently the one that had bitten me—stretched out behind the machines. I looked at it long enough to see that it had the markings and head shape of a rattlesnake. But then, as I stood there, fear flooded my thought. And, whereas the toe had not given me a problem before, I could now feel it pulsating and swelling. Mary Baker Eddy states in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 415): "Inflammation as a mortal belief quickens or impedes the action of the system, because thought moves quickly or slowly, leaps or halts when it contemplates unpleasant things, or when the individual looks upon some object which he dreads."
