A healing I experienced several years ago has been a staff for me to lean on, so I decided it’s time to share it with others. I had a severe cold, and it looked as though I was in for an uncomfortable night. Unable to sleep, I propped myself up in bed, picked up a copy of the Christian Science Sentinel, and started reading.
One of the articles discussed Christ Jesus’ healing of the man with the withered hand. Thinking about this story, I knew that when Jesus said, “Stretch forth thine hand” (Matthew 12:13), he was certain healing would take place and the man’s hand would be made whole as the other because God, who is totally good and created all, did not create disease, deformity, or any other evil. Therefore evil could not, in reality, be included in man’s being or experience. No matter how real the withered condition of a hand looked, it was not the reality.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered the spiritual sense of Jesus’ teachings in her study of the Bible, wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (p. 261).
