"The spirit of the Christ…had spoken through me"

In general, we don’t put our whole trust in someone that we don’t know very well. There are exceptions – we may trust an airline pilot we have never met, because we can be assured that he or she has studied, been tested, and has demonstrated a knowledge of aerodynamics sufficiently to get us from here to there safely. To put our whole trust in God to guide us wisely and lovingly and perfectly in small and significant moments, we really have to get to know God!

This was foremost in my thought when I went to help my sister through a very difficult time last fall. Although she had chosen a medical route, she loves hearing the Bible lessons, the Sentinel Watch, and discussing Christian Science (and it was during these times that she was most peaceful.) Aside from household duties, I felt I just needed to study and spend time really getting to know God.

Now, I don’t feel very comfortable sharing Christian Science with anyone unfamiliar with the concepts. I often want to say something, but it never seems to come out clearly, and when I have said something, it has felt awkward, odd and has made me feel pretty anxious.

My brother-in-law, although he attends the Christian Science church with my sister, is not a Christian Scientist. In the 35-plus years I have known him, I have never discussed anything about Christian Science with him and couldn’t even imagine what I would say to him if I wanted to share something. But this deep study was changing my concept of this even though I had no idea that this was going on! 

One afternoon I took a short break from chores and study with a dip in the pool. My brother-in-law saw me and thought I might like a raft to float on. He brought it over to me, limping, saying he stepped on a bee getting the raft. Without a thought, I said, “You can’t suffer from being helpful!” He looked at me puzzled, and I said it again. It was like a light clicked on and he said, “You’re right!” And that was all that was said. 

Later that evening while we were all having dinner, he blurted out, “Your sister healed me! She healed me!” And he went on to tell my sister what had happened. I thought carefully about this later. A wonderful insight had been revealed to me. This spiritualization of thought had removed any fear of sharing – in fact sharing had not even been in my thought. In the past, had this incident occurred, I might have thought, “This isn’t true of man! I should say something. But no, I’ll just say I’m sorry and pray about it to myself.” None of this silly self-talk even occurred to me. The words came out as naturally as saying, “thank you” for the raft. It was as if someone else had spoken through me without even giving me any notice! And truly that was the case. The spirit of the Christ, so clear in my thought due to my study and acceptance of the truth, had spoken through me. And because it was said in the loving spirit of the Christ, it was accepted and effective. 

Something I once read in the periodicals said grace was the ability to do all things with spiritual ease. I love that one definition of the many definitions of grace. It seemed to fit this experience perfectly. Getting to know God, keeping our thought on Him, and His goodness, and His allness, we cannot help but effortlessly reflect that goodness and grace.