On a Wednesday evening two summers ago, as I was walking through some tall grass, I suddenly felt a very sharp pain on the top of my toe. Immediately I began declaring truths of God’s goodness and allness out loud. I was certain I had just been bitten by a copperhead snake. We had been seeing an unusual number of them in the preceding months.
The pain was excruciating, and my foot was swelling rapidly. By the time I reached the house, I could hardly walk. Not wanting to look at the foot, I got into bed and covered up with the sheet. Trying to remain calm, I called a Christian Science practitioner and was very grateful to hear her loving, strong statements of truth. The one that really stuck with me was that in God’s kingdom there are no harmful or venomous creatures. And, she added, “That is the only kingdom there is.”
I still needed to quiet the panic just under the surface of my thought, but I realized it was almost time for the Wednesday evening Christian Science testimony meeting that I listen to by phone. I dialed in and listened with deep gratitude to the citations read from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, on the topic of the ever-presence and omnipotence of God. The whole meeting, including the testimonies of healing, really helped deepen my understanding that divine Love is All. Later the practitioner emailed a thought that was helpful: “Love is the antidote for poison, and you are the very expression of Love.”
