`I Am Well!'

FEELING better is good -- ask anyone who has gained relief from serious pain or debility. But feeling well -- completely well -- is best of all. The feeling of complete wellness can result naturally from seeking healing from disease or injury through spiritual means, by understanding God and His love for man.

When you think about God's love for His creation, it really shouldn't seem surprising that a better understanding of Him heals. The Bible is full of evidence and examples of God's power and willingness to heal. Among Christ Jesus' many wonderful healings, I often think of the healing of the woman the Bible describes as ``having an issue of blood twelve years.'' It wouldn't be surprising if she, as most of us would have been, had been feeling ``Will this never end?'' and ``Can no one help me?'' Yet when she sought healing through Jesus' ministry, the Bible records, she had only to touch ``the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.''1

Spiritual healing isn't limited, however, to a special time of ``miracles,'' long ago and now ended. It is certainly true that Jesus is unique as our Way-shower -- there never has been nor ever will be another like him. Yet, that term Way-shower implies that we can follow his example, that we ourselves can find guidance by turning solely to God, divine Love, for healing. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science as a result of her own healing of severe injury, says, ``It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

``The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love.''2

A deeper look into this divine Love that is God can show why healing should be normal and natural. Since God is Love, the love He gives is reflected by everything He creates. Spiritual love is more than merely God's signature or a halo resting above His creation -- it actually constitutes the fabric, or complete existence, of all that God creates.

Man, in the deepest sense, is the creation of God, Spirit. Thus man is really far more than a mortal being. The real nature of man is made in God's image. And since God is divine Spirit, the meaning of man as spiritual needs to be expressed. Sickness, injury, and invalidism are surely not inherent in the creation of a loving God. In fact, in order to challenge such maladies, a first step might be to view them as limitations, as unnatural impositions upon humanity.

I have had healings that have pointed me to such a conclusion. Once, for example, I was suffering from severe and chronic coughing spells. One night another spell came as I lay in bed. As the coughing continued I reached out to God in prayer. Suddenly the thought of God's allness and ever-presence came to mind. I thought about what this meant to me just then. I thought, for example, about how God's allness meant that His love surrounded me at that moment. There just couldn't be anything present that could oppose such powerful love. Soon the condition and pain ended and never occurred again.

As in this case, physical healing requires a wholehearted turning to God in prayer. It often requires persistence, but healing does come. And when we are healed by God's love, we are well, and we know it!

1Luke 8:43, 44. 2Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 494.

Healing through prayer is explored in more detail in a weekly magazine, the Christian Science Sentinel.