In December 2011, just four days before Christmas, I was helping my husband with a plumbing repair. While lifting a bathroom toilet, I felt something give way in my back. I thought about Mary Baker Eddy’s statement that “accidents are unknown to God” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 424), but the pain felt intense. Lying down was challenging, and getting up even more challenging.
My husband immediately contacted a Christian Science practitioner to pray with me. When I spoke to her, I explained that something felt broken in my back and that I was worried about not being able to return to my work teaching school after the Christmas break. “No, no, no!” she replied firmly. I knew she was denying the fear I had voiced. Then she told of her own healing of a back problem and explained that the healing came when she realized the condition was not really physical but mental—a suggestion coming to her to accept a lie about herself. This really showed me the need to deny the aggressive thought that I had experienced an accident and to affirm that, as God’s spiritual idea, I was always at one with Him and under His perfect control.
A hymn by Susan F. Campbell from the Christian Science Hymnal inspired me. Every line spoke of healing and understanding, and I gratefully rejoiced in the last verse about man’s completeness:
