It is the summer of 1866. A boy waits for his mother on Lynn Beach, Massachusetts, while she hitches their horse and goes for water. The boy, George Norton, is seven years old, has clubfeet, and he has never walked. When his mother returns, she is stunned to find George walking with a woman, a stranger, completely healed. The two women weep for joy and give thanks to God. The woman who healed George is Mary Baker Eddy. See Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, originally published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966), p. 201
Earlier that same year Mrs. Eddy herself had experienced a remarkable healing from the severe effects of a fall, an injury from which her friends didn't expect her to recover. Asking for her Bible, she turned to an account of one of Jesus' healings. Writing of the incident in later years she said: "As I read, the healing Truth dawned upon my sense; and the result was that I rose, dressed myself, and ever after was in better health than I had before enjoyed. That short experience included a glimpse of the great fact that I have since tried to make plain to others, namely, Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 24 This spiritual insight and immediate healing led Mrs. Eddy to the discovery of the science of Christian healing.
Mrs. Eddy saw through the veil of matter to the spiritual reality of existence. It is the perception of this spiritual dimension, of this perfect reality, that continues to inspire, enlighten, uplift, and rouse thought today, bringing healing.
