One day while enjoying an afternoon ride, my horse slipped off a low footbridge and we both fell into the mucky streambed. Before I could get to my feet, the horse stepped on my lower leg to climb back up onto the bridge. I was wearing shorts, and the injury her hoof left was quite deep.
My riding companion, also a Christian Scientist, offered prayerful and physical support. I was unable to walk, so she helped me onto her horse for the return trip, and she shared several healing thoughts. It was very comforting to know we were both striving to be conscious only of God and His constant control over His entire creation, including my horse and me. Before we reached the barn, the pain was gone.
When I got home, my husband helped clean and bandage the wound, and most important, he prayed with me. This passage on page 125 of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, captures perfectly the complete healing that was to follow: “As human thought changes from one stage to another of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy,—from fear to hope and from faith to understanding,—the visible manifestation will at last be man governed by Soul, not by material sense.”
