The special relationship between God and man

I WAS straining to open the sash window in the old house where we were staying for a few days. Suddenly the cord broke and the top window crashed down, trapping the fingers of both hands. Instead of panic or pain, I felt immediately aware of the presence of God, of His love and care. Calmly I was able to ask my daughter to get help. When my hands were released, concern was expressed by friends, but I wrapped my fingers in a towel and tried to convey my confidence that all was well. Of course, I wasn't ignoring what had happened but realized that in the truest sense all really was well, because God maintains the harmony of all that He created.

I asked to be left alone for a while in order to read the weekly Bible Lesson outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly. What I learned from this lesson confirmed what I had felt of God's love and of His closeness to His offspring. It explained the reality of what I had accepted instinctively. I was then able to enjoy the rest of the day's activities.

I feel certain that it was as a direct result of what I discerned of God and of man's relationship to Him that swelling, discoloration, bruising, were prevented. I was able to use my hands freely, and by the end of the day there was no discomfort in the fingers at all.

This was a significant experience for me because I had effortlessly and naturally responded to God's presence. Fear had not been allowed to take over and spoil our visit. This was vivid proof of the immediacy and power of God's love for man.

Experiences like this encourage us to persevere, and they deepen our understanding of man's relationship to God. This understanding brings with it freedom from so many false beliefs and assumptions about existence that would snarl us in a web of fear if they were allowed to govern our lives. It frees us from the false sense that we're fragile mortals, living apart from God, subject to circumstances. It frees us from the belief that heredity and environment determine our well-being rather than God.

Each of God's offspring--each of us as He has truly created us--is inseparable from the creator. His spiritual likeness effortlessly expresses the innumerable qualities of the divine nature, such as strength, purity, love, health.

Not discerning the reality of this relationship, we believe we are at the beck and call of material conditions, subject to sickness, accident, and so forth. The Bible shows clearly that this misconception can be overturned through healing, despite all the evidence that would suggest healing is impossible. Christ Jesus was often under attack from outraged human opinion for teaching and demonstrating the special relationship between God and man. But he proved again and again that an understanding of and response to the facts of spiritual creation result in healing.

The Old Testament shows us the need to obey divine law, to worship the one God, in order to prove His care for us and to feel His presence with us. And it gives inspiring accounts of the overturning of material laws by the prophets' steadfast trust in and understanding of God's power, in the immediacy of His spiritual law. For example, there is the story of the Shunammite woman, whose son was raised from death by Elisha.1 Did at least some glimpse of man's undying relationship to God lie behind her words ``It shall be well'' and ``It is well''? This story has been a source of comfort and enlightenment to me on many occasions.

Referring to the physical healings that took place in Jesus' time, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: ``Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or `God with us,'--a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, To preach deliverance to the

captives [of sense], And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are

bruised.''2

The relationship that exists between God and man makes the healing of human ills not only possible but inevitable.

1See II Kings 4:8-37. 2Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. xi. DAILY BIBLE VERSE: Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. I John 3:1