On tour at a classic car museum, I was impressed by the museum’s exhibit of “barn finds.” A barn find is a classic car or motorcycle that has been abandoned, often left in a barn in poor condition. Collectors then purchase the neglected car or motorcycle to restore it. With love, persistence, and diligent work, the barn finds I saw at the museum had been restored to their original, beautiful state.
This made me ponder the art of Christian Science healing. I realized that no matter what condition we may find ourselves in—stuck in sorrow, lost in sin, or struggling with sickness—restoration is always possible for us. Psalms offers this comforting verse: “Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (42:11).
But how does one go about becoming restored in this way? Through understanding more of God and of ourselves as His spiritual reflection, and yielding to the Christ, the spirit of divine Truth and Love that Jesus embodied and revealed through his ministry, our health and happiness can be restored, because then we see that we actually already have them from God now and forever. We may need to be persistent in our efforts to grow in our spiritual understanding and practice, though. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy explains: “By lifting thought above error, or disease, and contending persistently for truth, you destroy error” (p. 400).
