Last summer after church, I went out to our backyard to set up a sprinkler on the lawn. I was headed back to the house, when a board that was lying on the ground caught the hem of my pants, throwing me face first onto the concrete.
I jumped to my feet and said firmly and aloud that no accident had occurred. My vision was blurry, and my nose was bleeding and seemed to be damaged, but I continued to know that I was “not hurt” and to “understand the reason why,” to quote from Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 397). That statement follows several passages that describe the impossibility of accidents being part of God’s plan for us.
When I went into the house, my family expressed a great deal of concern, but I told them I was all right. I asked my husband to call a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me, while I went into the bathroom to clean up. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. The image was very frightening, but I affirmed out loud that what I saw wasn’t really “me.” In other words, I’m spiritual, unfallen, made perfect and whole by God in every way.
