One Sunday morning about two years ago, as I was on my way to go to church, I stepped off a curb and severely twisted my ankle. For a moment, I was unable to get up off the ground. I was concerned about how I was going to get to my branch Church of Christ, Scientist, where I serve as First Reader. Just then, my husband appeared by my side, put his arm around me, shared some spiritual truths, and helped me get up.
I could stand on my ankle, but it didn’t feel right, and there was discomfort. Immediately, I began to declare the powerful healing truths in “the scientific statement of being” found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (see p. 468). This calmed my thought by helping me see that because God is Spirit, His image and likeness, man, is not material, but spiritual. I knew this to be the fact about my life, and I refused to accept any reports to the contrary from my body.
At this point, I found I was able to walk on my own, and my husband left for his branch church (we had both been elected First Reader of our respective branch churches right after we had been married a few months before). I called a Christian Science practitioner, who immediately assured me of my wholeness and of my unity with my Father-Mother, God. Because God is Mind, and we are each His beloved spiritual idea, it is impossible for us to be separated from Him. Our relationship to God can never be strained or damaged. These spiritual facts are infused with God’s healing power.
I was able to get to church and enjoy reading that morning as I always did, and to ascend and descend the stairs to the Readers’ platform without limping. The discomfort had significantly diminished, and much mobility was restored to my ankle. I was so grateful for this progress.
Over the next couple of weeks, though, it seemed as if the healing stalled. I could walk, but not at my normal pace, and going down stairs was painful. Living in a three-story townhouse and having a job that often required fast-paced walking over great distances, I found this to be a challenge.
However, I was able to take quiet breaks during the day to continue praying about the situation. I would ponder the spiritual import of passages from the Bible and Science and Health that I was reading in the weekly Christian Science Bible Lesson-Sermon. Sometimes I’d even sing hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal quietly to myself. This kept my thought uplifted and turned toward God, Spirit, refuting the so-called carnal mind’s suggestions that I had experienced a serious injury, that it required a long period of recovery, or that Christian Science couldn’t heal this case completely.
About that time, I was asked to go on a business trip with my boss. This trip would include attending events and driving long distances. It would also give me the opportunity to meet individuals relevant to my work. I was looking forward to it, and I prayed for the harmony of the trip, including my ability to perform my duties freely. The Christian Science practitioner agreed to pray for me as well.
I had to fly halfway across the country for this trip. When I arrived at an airport where I had a layover, I found I had five minutes to make my connecting flight in another terminal. Without even thinking about my ankle, I ran from my gate to the other terminal. Gratefully, the connecting flight had been delayed long enough for me to make it. Once I got on the plane, I realized that my ankle felt completely normal. There wasn’t any sense of discomfort or weakness.
I immediately thought of a passage in Science and Health regarding the mental nature of disease. It relates an account of an elderly actor who could hardly walk most of the time, but moved with ease during his scenes on stage. It explains: “Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning of God, or good, and the nature of the immutable and immortal” (p. 261).
I realized that my desire to express qualities like love and principledness in my work assignment (and the desire to do it well) had kept my thought turned toward God, not my body. This reminded me of another passage from Science and Health: “Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself” (p. 385). When I looked that sentence up later that night, I found that it is followed by, “If you sprain the muscles or wound the flesh, your remedy is at hand.” I have seen that Christian Science is always at hand, and is always effective. I felt the healing presence and power of the Christ, the eternal nature and essence of God that Christ Jesus so fully expressed, there with me in that moment.
Over the next 36 hours, I drove over 600 miles, went up and down stairs carrying luggage, and even ran for cover during a hailstorm, with no further problems from my ankle. But almost as soon as the plane landed back home, my ankle began to feel uncomfortable again. However, the fact that the material condition was not truly part of me had been made plain to me through prayer during my trip, and I was no longer impressed by the suggestion that I could be hurt. I was filled with a sense of the allness, the goodness, and the omnipotence of infinite Love. Over the next couple of days, the discomfort ceased entirely, and I have been completely free ever since. I’ve hiked, walked, and biked with complete freedom since this healing.
I am deeply grateful for Christ Jesus’ example and for Mary Baker Eddy’s sharing with the world the healing power of Christian Science that was divinely revealed to her.
Allison J. Rose-Sonnesyn
Washington, DC, US
