Rebounding from injury

There is a profound spiritual prerogative for denying the supposed power of an accident. It is described in the first chapter of Genesis, which says that God made man in His image. This is not to suggest that we ignore accidents but that we can find healing from the effects of them, as we're receptive to the truth that our real being is not material or subject to chance or injury.

No matter what situation we may find ourselves in--even should help be urgently needed--we can turn in complete confidence to God, divine Love, who, as the Bible assures us, is an ever-present, unfailing help in trouble.

Knowing that man is God's child, whole and safe in the care of his creator, regardless of appearances, Christ Jesus was able to heal physical troubles. His works brought to light the fact that man has never really fallen from his original spiritual state of perfection and that nothing can interfere with his freedom and well-being as the offspring of God.

Each one of us who discerns his real being and strives to live in accord with it through following the teachings of our Master can know the comforting assurance of divine Love's care.

In line with Jesus' teachings--his statement, for example, that God is Spirit (see John 4:24)--Christian Science brings out that our true selfhood, as the outcome of Spirit, is spiritual, not material, that man is not bound by human circumstances, is not at the mercy of accident and injury. In a comforting sense, then, we don't have to go somewhere else to find help. We need to open out thought to the reality of our being in God's care, inseparable from Him, inseparable from divine Life and Love. God's child can never, for an instant, be deprived of his Father's loving care, can never be out of his God-provided niche of spiritual security.

THe Psalmist sang, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." (Psalms 90:1) It is for this very reason that in truth we are eternally exempt from mishaps of any kind. We have never actually been apart from our divine source, God--not even for a moment. As God's man, dwelling in Him, we are and always have been preserved by His unerring laws of order, safety, and exemption from harm. Equipped with this knowledge, we can find quick and complete healing of injuries.

And Mary Baker Eddy in her book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" brings out something that has helped me when I've needed to bounce back from bodily injury. "When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, 'I am hurt!' Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real."

"Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be." (page 397)