Are you a statistic?

THAT'S the question my friend asked me when I told him of a threatening illness that the media were citing as a possible epidemic, nationwide. I had been feeling ill, and I had an important commitment on my agenda for the next two days. It was an educational project with top priority. My friend immediately assured me that health and freedom are indestructible elements of the man God created, of everyone's true identity; that because God is supreme, fear had no actual power to invade my consciousness. I saw that as God's offspring I had God-given strength to resist any trepidation of evil-to-come. In my daily Bible study I turned more earnestly to the Scriptural account of man's true nature and origin: ``And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion....''1 In the light of Christian Science I knew that I could reject the discord as a product of the false assumption that man is material, the unlikeness of God. But man, as Spirit's likeness, can't really be other than spiritual and perfect, despite what our eyes and materialistic reasoning tell us.

I was learning to rely on God, Truth, as my safest and surest remedy. I had come to regard bodily inharmony as untrue because it is not the outcome of the one, infinitely good creator. What could destroy a lie but Truth itself, wiping out the erroneous conviction that man is separated from God, from his source of well-being? Was I a statistic? Of course not. And neither was anyone else. Strengthened by my friend's conviction as to my exemption from the possibility of contagion, I resisted the temptation to arrange for a substitute. Despite discomfort, I began to move forward with my work.

I thought of how the Apostle Paul met his many challenges, saying, ``Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.''2 I thought of armor as God-derived qualities put into practice: joy, vigor, gratitude, peace. And I thought of it as standing firmly for one creator, God, and one perfect, spiritual creation.

The physical symptoms lessened. By the time I was due at my post they had practically disappeared. I had a joyful, rewarding experience in helping to advance an educational program vital to the community.

In truth, God controls man's health, is the source and sustainer of it. And because man is God's image, reflecting the substance, condition, and action of the Divine Being, can there be any variableness in his well-being? The imposition of physical disorder would challenge the supremacy of the divine order. Yet the divine order cannot be reversed.

Understanding good to be God-sustained eliminates the fear that it can suddenly disappear and be replaced by some malady. Realizing in prayer our spiritual identity as God's likeness, we can defend ourselves from the suggestion that we are pawns of uncontrollable forces. We can say, and prove, that ``the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.''3

We read in the New Testament of an instantaneous cure with no need for a recuperative period. ``When Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.''4

Who would not welcome such a visitor? Today, the healing Christ-power is available to hearts and minds waiting for the Christ touch, for the liberty of the sons of God. We can know with certainty that Almighty God meets our needs even as the Bible declares: ``Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.''5

Are you a statistic? No! You have unique spiritual individuality, receptive to good alone, safely dwelling in the Life that is God.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: ``We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought that we have transgressed a material law and must of necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure ourselves with the law of Love. God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion.''6

Like a warm blanket on a wintry night, we can draw about us the reminder ``Let us reassure ourselves with the law of Love.'' Actually, true health is the consciousness of Love as being everything to all that exists.

1Genesis 1:26. 2Ephesians 6:13. 3Romans 8:2. 4Matthew 8:14, 15. 5Isaiah 65:24. 6Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 384. DAILY BIBLE VERSE He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. Psalms 91:4