One night when I got home it was very hot, so I sat down on the verandah. The neighbors used to say that a bite from a certain type of centipede could have fatal consequences, because they believed its poison was lethal. While I was seated there, I saw the kind of centipede they talked about right beside me. In great fear, I tried to kill it by stepping on it. On my third try it bit one of my toes. Then I was really afraid.
I screamed, and my neighbor rushed to help me. I asked him to kill the centipede. I walked into the house and picked up my Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. And I began to study them. The pain was horrible, and I also felt guilty for having asked my neighbor to kill the bug. I found this passage in Science and Health, "Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love" (p. 340). As I thought about these statements, I became calmer and my fear began to disappear. A feeling of compassion, forgiveness, and love came over me. The pain gradually decreased.
I understood that because Love, or God, is infinite, it manifests itself everywhere and in all living things. Therefore, I couldn't be harmed by another creature. Even at the moment of that bite I had been under God's care and I still was, because nothing could separate me from Love.
