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HEALING

Just because it's familiar doesn't mean it can't be fresh!

Spiritual inspiration isn't boxed in by words we think we already know too well.

From the September 1999 issue of The Christian Science Journal


Think of the powerful effect of a single glimpse of God! I experienced this power for myself when oh-so familiar (to me) words of great import that I'd heard every Sunday in church and memorized as a child came alive to me when I was in dire need, and healed me. These words are "the scientific statement of being." It can be found in a companion book to the Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The statement reads: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." Science and Health, p. 468.

I first learned the importance of this statement from my grandmother. As a public practitioner of Christian Science, she healed people through prayer. One day while visiting her, I saw her Science and Health open to the statement. "I know that by heart," I told her, and recited it for her. She said she was so glad I had memorized it because that way it would always be with me. If I ever found myself in an emergency, those words would come to me, and the realization of what they mean would save my life, Grandma said. I never forgot that, nor the conviction with which she said it. I could tell she spoke from experience.

After growing up, I loved reading my Bible and Science and Health. I turned to them naturally for every need—direction, employment, health, guidance in marriage and child rearing. Yet I found myself avoiding "the scientific statement of being." Whenever I did start mentally to recite it, it seemed just words to me. I was reciting it by rote. This was a ritual, not a realization. I never really pondered the words, never let their freshness speak to me. I was always too busy looking for something "new" to inspire me.

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