"I just felt such a rush of love at the supermarket"

I had a wonderful healing of contagion about twelve years ago. It is a healing I go back to again and again because it was the first essentially instantaneous healing I can recall having as an adult and it made such an impression on me (and it was also one of the earliest healings I wrote down). I was hanging out with my then-boyfriend (who was antagonistic to Christian Science), and he seemed to come down with a claim of the flu (and there was a claim of it being “flu season”. I, however, was not afraid of the contagion and was doing my best to “stand porter at the door” of my thought, but several days later (while I was ushering at church, no less!); I started to feel unwell (with symptoms resembling those my boyfriend had exhibited earlier).

I could see very clearly it was aggressive mental suggestion, yet I was still not feeling great as I left church. I recall calling my parents on my walk home from church and asking them to pray with me, and the thought I worked with on my walk to the grocery store (I needed to buy food on my way home) was “Love is the liberator” (Mary Baker Eddy, SH 225:21). I tried to keep my thought so full of love that there was no room for error. This grocery store has an elaborate automated checkout system that involves a color-coded monitor telling customers who should go next, and when it was my turn, another woman went instead. This would normally have annoyed me back then, but I distinctly recall not having a “snippy” thought and just waiting for the next cashier to be open.

While I was headed there, the woman who went ahead of me came over to apologize for going first, and I said it was no problem at all (and was grateful I hadn’t had an irritated thought about her moments earlier), and then I just felt such a rush of love at the supermarket! I started to feel better on my walk home, and there was no trace of illness whatsoever when I awoke the next day. As I wrote in my healings journal, I found this healing important because it showed me that it is never too late to pray and expect healing. (I didn’t need to feel bad thinking that I hadn’t been a good porter!) And reflecting on this now, I am grateful for the simplicity of it – Love just washed away any thought of contagion or fear, resulting in healing. I have especially loved working with this thought from Mary Baker Eddy while I pray about the current claim of contagion: “Truth handles the most malignant contagion with perfect assurance”; (SH 176:31).

And the very recent fruitage is connected to our wonderful readings in preparation for Association Day. I have loved reading them and have gone through them several times but had sort of set aside the suggestion (in the readings) of reading the “Mental Treatment Illustrated” part of Science and Health until later. I had been praying about the current claim of contagion each day, but perhaps not in as dedicated a way as one would hope, and it was hearing my branch church’s online Wednesday meeting last week and the great testimonies that jolted me out of my lethargy.

The next day, I was surprised to learn (in response to “And how are you doing?”) that one of my business’s customers and his girlfriend had been diagnosed with the coronavirus. Mortal mind’s first, frightened thought was, Oh, now it’s really real – you personally know someone affected by this! But my second thought, a thought from divine Mind, was that I knew what was real, and it was only what God has created. I was so grateful for last week’s Bible Lesson on the topic of Reality, which was such a rebuke to mortal mind’s fears. So all this got me on the right track, and that evening, I just drank in every word of “Mental Treatment Illustrated”; and knew it was true for my customer and his girlfriend and for everyone. (Sometimes when I read Science and Health, I am very slow and it can feel like a lot to read just five pages, but this was just speaking to me very clearly, and I couldn’t stop!)

My shoulder had been uncomfortable since December, and I had worked with a practitioner about this a little bit and had experienced some relief, but the claim of discomfort had gotten a bit more aggressive last week. I used to sometimes poke at my shoulder and try to stretch it (always to no avail), but that night, I just turned away from the seeming reality of the pain. I remember falling asleep knowing that this was not true about me and feeling confident that Christian Science is effective. And I woke up – and have continued to be – free from the pain. I am so grateful! The quickest physical healings I have had in Christian Science have come about when I have been able to turn away from the claim and turn to the Allness of Truth.