My husband and I moved into a new house several years ago, and on the day before Thanksgiving, I was unpacking. As I stood on a countertop, reaching to a cabinet near the ceiling, a glass fell. I reached down in an attempt to stop it from hitting the countertop, but I was too late, and my hand grasped glass that had already shattered. My hand was cut in a number of places, and it seemed one finger had been seriously injured.
I turned my thought to God and immediately felt His presence and love. I also felt a great sense of peace, as I knew that through prayer based on spiritual laws, the Science of Christ, Truth, I could witness divine Love’s healing power evidenced in this situation.
I wrapped my hand in a towel, called my husband at work, and asked him to call a Christian Science nurse to come to our house. Meanwhile, I called a Christian Science practitioner and asked her to pray for me. Together, the practitioner and I affirmed God’s presence and care of His children. We were grateful to know with certainty and joy that no aspect of my spiritual identity, as the image and likeness of God, divine Love, could be severed or injured. How could a broken glass cut off any aspect of my forever being? Nothing could separate any part of me from God, divine Life and Love.
Among other truths, words from a favorite hymn came to thought:
I know no life divided,
O Lord of life, from Thee;
In Thee is life provided
For all mankind and me:
. . . . .
I fear no tribulation,
Since, whatsoe’er it be,
It makes no separation
Between my Lord and me.
(Carl J. P. Spitta, Richard Massie, Tr., Christian Science Hymnal, No. 135)
This reminded me of a healing truth from the Apostle Paul’s letter to Christians in Rome: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 38, 39). It was clear to me that this is as true for me, and all of us, as it was for Paul.
My husband arrived home soon after I’d talked with the practitioner, and within minutes of his arrival, the Christian Science nurse arrived. The God-derived love and peace she expressed comforted both my husband and me.
As she gently and lovingly cleaned my hand, we shared recent spiritual lessons we’d each learned. The Christian Science nurse suggested a simple way to protect my hand while still enabling me to use it, a step I utilized for a week or so as I continued to pray. I so appreciated Mary Baker Eddy’s provision: “A member of The Mother Church who represents himself or herself as a Christian Science nurse shall be one who has a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice, who thoroughly understands the practical wisdom necessary in a sick room, and who can take proper care of the sick” (Manual of The Mother Church, p. 49). My husband, too, was grateful for this provision, and remarked that seeing the Christian Science nurse’s and my freedom from fear, as we affirmed spiritual truths, helped allay his own fears and concerns.
The Christian Science nurse soon went her way, assuring me that she would return if and when needed, though another visit did not prove to be necessary.
The practitioner continued to pray with me for several days. We considered ourselves witnesses to the law of Love that we, God’s spiritual children, are always subject to, and because of which we can never be separated from God.
Thanksgiving Day was full of opportunities for gratitude. I was able to cook, eat, clean, play games, and share in the joy being expressed by those present.
Progress continued the next day, as I was able to do everything needed, including typing normally with both hands, as I prepared for a work trip. I left as scheduled early Monday morning and was able to carry my baggage. Very soon I was able to use the hand completely freely, and within a couple of weeks of the incident all signs of injury were completely gone.
Experiences such as this are evidence to me of the divine law that is in effect for all of us, everywhere, always. As Mrs. Eddy tells the world: “We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought that we have transgressed a material law and must of necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure ourselves with the law of Love. God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion. If man seems to incur the penalty through matter, this is but a belief of mortal mind, not an enactment of wisdom, and man has only to enter his protest against this belief in order to annul it. Through this action of thought and its results upon the body, the student will prove to himself, by small beginnings, the grand verities of Christian Science” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 384).
I’m grateful for this experience, which proved to me, “by small beginnings, the grand verities of Christian Science” and the power of God to heal now as in Bible days; and I’m also thankful for the Christian Science nurse, the practitioner, and my husband, who joined me as we reassured “ourselves with the law of Love” and witnessed this healing together.
Christine Irby Williams
Avondale Estates, Georgia, US
