About six o'clock one morning several years ago, I was loading a riding lawn mower up a ramp and into a pickup truck. Just as the lawn mower rolled onto the back of the truck, the ramp collapsed and I fell to the ground among the fallen planks. As the truck was on a slight uphill incline and the ramp was now gone, the lawn mower rolled off the truck and fell on my head. Even as this was happening I found myself declaring, "God, You are right here."
As I lay on the ground amid the planks and under the lawn mower, I felt an absolute confidence in God's presence, power, and love for me. In the next few minutes the lawn mower and planks somehow shifted off me and I was able to stand up. I began to walk around the truck, declaring, "There are no accidents known to God." The commotion caused the family dog to come running, but no one else was wakened.
There were abrasions and bleeding on my face and head, but as I continued to affirm the truth of God's perfect government, the pain and shock disappeared. Then the feeling that there might be serious injury such as concussion or skull fracture or possible brain damage had to be countered through prayer. Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives us a clear guide for handling claims of accident in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. She writes, "Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be."
