The path alongside Strawberry Creek starts out by ambling gently upward through a colorful patchwork quilt of wildflowers. Indian paint-brush, goldenrod, azaleas, and lupine blanket the mountainside bordering the creek, in the San Bernardino National Forest of California. Walking that path—drinking in those surroundings—I always find it easier to remember the natural purity and loveliness of others and of myself. Sometimes a boulder, with dirt wedged into its jagged cracks and its surface caked with mud, tumbles from the mountainside into the streambed, but this doesn't spoil the creek. The sparkling clear water rushes in, washing the dirt away. Over time, the stream even smoothes away the boulder's rough edges.
I like to think that what happens in Strawberry Creek is a bit like what happens in Christian healing. People are pure and good to the core—just the way God made them. That purity is always there, always the fact. But sometimes mental pollutants—resentment, fear, and so on—roll into people's mental homes, and their hopes and aspirations get covered over. And, sometimes, their health begins to erode. But it never actually contaminates the Christly nature of their being. The cleansing action that is so much a part of Christian healing freshens and renews a person's thoughts until he or she rebounds, regains a clearer outlook mentally, and a healthier life physically. All because of the spiritual activity of Christ.
It's a natural thing, really, this uncovering of the purity that is already there as an underlying spiritual fact. As Christian healing streams through one's heart and life, not only do things not wanted or needed get washed away, but the rough spots in one's character begin to smooth away also. And who wouldn't want that? Almost always, that means more peace of mind for the individual, which is a big plus in terms of health.
