On a Wednesday night years ago, I was serving as usher at the weekly testimony meeting at my local branch, the Church of Christ, Scientist.
The meeting had just started when I felt something abrasive in my eye. It was confusing, because I knew nothing had flown into it. So, I went down the hall to look in the mirror to find out what was going on. I saw that there was something strange at the back of the eye.
My first thought was, “This is going to require surgery.” It threw me off momentarily, but in the aftermath I found myself turning to God in prayer as I walked back into the hall. This deliberate shift in thinking brought me back to my natural trust in God for healing.
By studying Christian Science, I had learned that the truth that Jesus said would set us free (see John 8:32) calms fears. As the congregation listened to inspired readings from the Bible and “Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy (the discoverer of Christian Science), I intensely and wholeheartedly reached out to God to get help while waiting to hear an answer. I was praying from the perspective of what I knew of God and what Christian Science teaches and proves to be spiritually true.
The thought that came to me in a powerful way was that God, Truth, fills all space and does it here and now. The Bible expresses this assurance of God so well in Jeremiah 23:24: “Shall I not fill the heavens and the earth? Science and Health says, referring to God, “He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind” (p. 331). I felt that was definitely true, because that is the nature of the infinite Spirit, God. It was the first time that I felt this truth with such liveliness and precision. I really held onto it like a lifeline.
This truth filled my mind and dispelled the fear as I continued to pray, and I felt confident and in it. A sense of peace and calm was introduced into my thinking. And I realized that the abrasive feeling was diminishing. I remember being so thankful for God’s loving presence.
Coming home after the service, I was aware that there was no more gritty feeling in my eyes. I knew something truly holy and enlightening had happened to me that night. When I got home, I looked in the mirror and clearly saw that what was there an hour or two ago was now nowhere to be found.
I have to say I was surprised to see such a transformation, but my very next thought was, “Oh, so that’s what Mrs. Eddy meant about matter when she wrote that ‘her conditions are delusions'”. These words are part of this statement on page 368 of Science and Health: “Because matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act; its conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the source of all apparent disease. This experience proved to me that physical fitness was not a real “something” after all, because God did not cause or create it. And because it was not spiritually true or good, it was not included in God’s reality, and therefore not mine.
This healing will always appear to me as proof of the power and presence of God and the efficacy of Christian Science. Spirit, Truth, truly fills all space with love. As Science and Health promises on page 520: “The depth, breadth, height, power, majesty and glory of Infinite Love fills all space. That’s enough!”
Adapted from a story published in the September 20, 2021 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.