During a routine physical activity while on duty in the Brazilian Army, I injured myself and felt a pain so intense in my right leg that I could barely stand. I immediately began to affirm the ever-present, divine perfection of God, which I express as His child and which cannot be altered. This healing thought came to me because of what I have learned through my study of Christian Science.
In accordance with regulations, I was taken to the barracks infirmary, where the unit’s doctor attended to me. After examining me very carefully, he said that I had suffered a severe muscle sprain in the back of my lower leg. He immediately prescribed the medications that he considered necessary, in addition to recommending that I go to the military hospital and undergo specific exams to determine a treatment for my full recovery. He also prescribed eight days of leave from work and the suspension of physical activities during my recovery. His prognosis was that I would need 30 to 45 days before I could take up my physical activities again.
Unable to move around on my own, I was carried to my house, located within the barracks and close to the infirmary.
When I got home, my wife and I expressed our gratitude to the friends and health professionals who, with much love and attention, had accompanied me home. After they left, we both decided to turn to prayer to overcome this challenge.
We knew that the purpose of that prayer wouldn’t be to fix my leg. We wanted to be thinking from a spiritual perspective—of God’s constant presence—and consciously acknowledging the reality of my true identity, which is the reflection of God. It was important to let go of a material and limited point of view, which outlined my body as strained, inflamed, and painful.
We prayed, acknowledging that the divine presence is always harmonious. We acknowledged that God is Life, Spirit, and that man—all men and women—as the image and likeness of Spirit, is constituted of the substance of Spirit, which does not break and does not become inflamed. The substance of Spirit is eternal, and this substance is all that is real. Only perfection emanates from God, so everything in us reflects perfection, as this passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy explains: “In divine Science, man is the true image of God. . . . The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration” (p. 259).
In our prayers, my wife and I also acknowledged that we are subject only to the law of divine Principle—to the law of harmony, strength, and precision. In this divine law there is no deformity or imperfection. We clung to the idea that everything always was, is, and will be very good, because “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). I was not dependent on human timeframes, methods, and rules for my health and the completeness of my real identity. There is only one authority, the perfect Principle, Love, which had never introduced into my existence a gap in which bad things might happen. This Principle is the only action that is going on. God is the All-in-all, supreme and absolute. We felt a lot of peace and were grateful for this enlightened awareness of my true, spiritual, harmonious identity.
My wife had to go out, and I continued to study this beautiful definition of man in Science and Health: “Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; . . .” (p. 475).
This correct way of thinking definitively changed my perception of the situation, and I stopped accepting the material view. As a result, my experience, as it related to the body, soon changed.
Although my leg still didn’t move normally, the next day I was able to walk to my office. Everyone who saw me was astonished and asked, “Why did you come in?” To which I replied, “I’m able to move around and work.”
After one week I resumed all my physical activities. The healing of my leg was complete, and the symptoms that bothered me have never returned. It was a quick and permanent healing.
I express my immense gratitude for the Christian Science teachings that enabled me to experience this and many other healings.
Talban Frizotti
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
