Over a year ago, I woke up and felt some discomfort around my rib cage. This had happened before—recurring every couple of months or so for a few years. In previous occurrences I would just stretch until I heard a popping sound, and then everything would feel better.
However, on this particular day, no amount of stretching made any difference. Something inside my chest felt out of place, and it was painful to breathe throughout the day.
At the time I was a new student of Christian Science, and toward the end of the day, the idea came to me to deal with this challenge, using what I’d learned from studying Christian Science.
That night I went to a Wednesday evening testimony meeting at the Christian Science church I was attending. Part of the meeting is a time for testimonies, where people can stand up and share healings and spiritual insights they have had in practicing Christian Science.
While I was sitting in a pew waiting for the next person to share a testimony, I thought of God’s ever-presence and a quote by Mary Baker Eddy: “. . . Spirit is supreme and all-presence” (Science and Health, p. 278).
I thought about how I’d perceived my ribs to be out of place—as if something in me, something God had created, could ever be out of place or not right where it should be. But Christian Science had taught me that nothing in God’s existence could ever be anywhere else than where it should be.
This made me think of a situation I was having with my job at the time. I’d recently left my teaching position of five years to take a job in a completely different field, with a local non-profit organization.
This new job had come as an answer to a prayer, but after the first week or two, I wasn’t sure it was the right place for me after all.
As I sat in church, I realized I could never be in the wrong spot if God was with me. At once I felt at peace with my current job. God had opened the doors for me to have this job. And since He was there guiding my every move, I knew then that at that time in my life, it was the perfect place of employment for my particular God-given skills and interests.
At that moment, I suddenly felt an almost tangible presence that God was right there with me. It felt as if His presence and love were a blanket surrounding me. This warm and embracing feeling encompassed my entire body, head to foot.
The thought came to me: If God is here, closer than my breath, and He is in the right place at all times, then I couldn’t possibly be in the wrong place. And nothing within me could be in the wrong place, either.
A verse from Deuteronomy explains how close and present God is: “And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed” (31:8).
I felt so peaceful—that I was exactly where I should be, with God orchestrating everything to follow His perfection. By the time the service ended, the pain in my chest had lessened. That night, I continued to pray with these ideas, and by the next morning the pain was completely gone.
I was so grateful. A few months later, I started to feel a bit of discomfort in my rib cage again. But the discomfort disappeared moments after I reminded myself of the truths I knew and the peace I’d experienced from this wonderful healing.
Since then, I’ve not experienced any further discomfort in my rib cage. I’m so grateful for God’s omnipresence, and I’m grateful for Christian Science, which is with me the whole time.
Woodinville, Washington, US
