When something disruptive happens—an accident, a disturbing encounter, anything threatening—I am helped by recognizing the spiritual fact of man’s unity with God.
Recently, one of those disrupting things happened to me. I was working out in the yard, when I fell and ended up flat on my back. Prayer was my immediate response. I reasoned that because of my spiritual oneness with God, I was forever in God’s presence. If I was forever “there” in God’s presence, I could never be “there” in the presence of an accident. Knowing this, I was protected from injury.
But then came a more powerful message: “There was never a bad ‘there’ for you to be in.” What that meant to me was that because of God’s loving government of His creation, there was never a possibility of such an untoward event. So I hadn’t just been protected from something disturbing; I was never really in a disturbing “there,” because there couldn’t have been such a thing in divine reality. I was able to get up without help and continue working with no aftereffects from the fall.
This might seem to be a rather surprising outcome. But I was confident of the truth of the message I’d heard because of what I’d learned about God and His creation in Christian Science. The first chapter of Genesis in the Bible explains that all God made is very good, and that each of His children is made in His image and likeness—finished, complete, spiritual, perfect. So the only place we truly can be is in God’s allness, surrounded by His goodness.
Christ Jesus’ healing work showed that this divine reality is made practical in human experience. When he encountered something that wasn’t consistent with God’s goodness, such as disease, deformity, or death, he wasn’t disturbed. Instead, he was so confident of the reality of God’s presence and care, where there is never anything that needs to be destroyed, that he gave thanks. And healing followed.
God’s infinite goodness leaves no room for evil, no room for anything that can be or needs to be destroyed. That wonderful message that there is never a “there” of hurt or harm to require healing or protection has changed my prayers. I’m very grateful.
Lois Degler
