“Science…the proof that God is active and present in our experience.”

I want to first reference a testimony I heard about 25 years ago when I was still new in Science. The testifier talked about seeing the aftermath of a car accident on the freeway and said, “Had we been doing our work we would never have seen it. It would not be part of our experience.”  I’ve always remembered it.

My cousin who has been living in another state recently took a job near my home town.  He’s been staying with me for few months while he finds a home for his family.  My cousin is an avid bike rider.  He’ll ride 20 - 40 miles on a Saturday or Sunday morning.  One Sunday after I got home from church I got a call from him saying that he’d had a biking accident and that I needed to pick him up.  The above testimony came to me immediately.  Then I thought, “I HAVE been doing my work.  I’ve been reading the chapter on ‘Creation’ from Science and Health, and doing my assignment.  This cannot be part of my experience.”  I couldn’t treat my cousin, who knows nothing of Science, but I could treat myself and clear my own thought.

The next thing that came to me was a paraphrase from the chapter on Creation- a false sense of man’s origin causes all discord.  The actual citation is, “The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man’s origin”. (SH, p. 262)  I think it came to me in reverse because the first thing I had to handle was a false sense of man’s origin.  He is not a biological cousin, but rather a spiritual brother since we have the same Father-Mother.  He is indeed a spiritual being and I cannot have a false sense of his origin (or mine).

My cousin is bigger than I am, so it was no small task to get him into the car and then out of the car into the house.  The claim that he could not walk at all made it necessary for me to carry him into the house on my back-  something one could consider physically impossible.   The metaphysical work I was doing was uplifting, natural, and enjoyable.

He asked me to buy him some crutches which I did and then left him alone to talk on the phone with his family.  After about two hours he asked me to take him to an emergency room where I left him at his request. A number of hours later he phoned to say he would require emergency hip replacement surgery first thing the next morning. I refused to be impressed by the whole thing.  I brought him the things he requested and was supportive in some practical ways.

At this point his wife and son flew in to take over.  After the surgery they rented a place where they could care for him after his week stay at the hospital. This freed me up from having to be involved physically and taking in the physical picture.  He continued to text me and I continued to keep my thought clear and work with this citation in Creation – over and over and over again.  I loved it!

After the surgery, the doctors and nurses on many separate occasions let him know that he could not expect to return to work for at least six weeks. Later his physical therapist said the same which also concurred with my experience when my mother had a similar surgery.  I realized I had to “put them all out”.  And that I did.  It was simply mortal nonsense.  Nothing had occurred from which to recuperate.

Two weeks after the surgery my cousin was back at work, driving a car, and at my house walking up and down stairs with the aid of one crutch.  His family had left.  At the end of six weeks he was back on his bicycle.

I’m grateful for so many things –
- the assignment.
- Science, itself -- the proof that God is active and present in our experience.
- Mrs. Eddy for all she did to bring us this Science in an understandable format called Science and Health.
- God, for being only good.