The Promise

As I gaze out the window of my home, which is in North America, looking out at trees and a beautiful lake, I see signs of spring. I can hear the honking of Canada geese as they land on the lake, watch robins and sparrows as they nestle in the trees, and see colorful yellow flowers blooming. For many people the promise of spring is refreshing, particularly after a long winter.

Unlike springtime, which comes and goes, God's presence, as revealed by Jesus Christ, is here and will remain. And it is even more refreshing. The book of John in the Bible records this promise made by Jesus: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever" (14:16). A book by Mary Baker Eddy refers to this promise and the promise of Christ-healing. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says: "The promises will be fulfilled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing.

"In the words of St. John: 'He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.' This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science" (p. 55).

What is this "Divine Science," or Christian Science? It is the divine Principle and law underlying the teachings and healings of Jesus. Christian Science was revealed to Mrs. Eddy after she had been healed of an accident so severe that doctors had given her no hope for recovery. At that critical time she turned to the Bible and to God, in prayer. And she was so touched by reading one particular healing Jesus had performed that she was healed herself. Through divine revelation, study of the Bible, and prayer, she wrote Science and Health. This book, as key to the Bible, helps us understand how Jesus healed and how Christian healing is practical today.

Jesus is recorded in the Bible as promising that we, too, can practice Christian healing. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12).

The promise Jesus made to us remains valid. The understanding of God as divine Spirit, and of ourselves as God's spiritual reflection-made perfect as God is perfect-is as attainable today as it was for Jesus in Bible days. When Jesus taught and healed people, which he did through his pure understanding of God and his love for others, he also assured that this practice of Christian healing could not be lost. Christian Science is that Comforter he spoke of. It is here and is making God's unchanging love for us evident and practical.

One of the healing truths Science and Health explains is that God is never separate from what He creates. He is Spirit, and that is why His sons and daughters are spiritual.

This truth comforted me when I was in a car accident and was suffering from a back injury. I prayed. I had learned that God's love for me had never been broken, and I also knew I was perfect and spiritual, made in God's image. God's love could not come and go like the season of spring; God's love for me was constant. I had prayed many times for others, to see this fact clearly, knowing that truly understanding spiritual facts heals physically. And now I knew that these same prayers could heal me also. Within a week I was free of all pain and injury. I was grateful to have had the comfort of Christian Science.

Spiritual healing was natural in the time of Jesus. The truths that Jesus understood, and by which Jesus healed, are in the Bible. Science and Health elucidates what the Bible contains. Christian Science is at hand for anyone to study, understand, and practice; Christian healing has not been lost. That Comforter is here, and the Bible's promise has been fulfilled!

For the promise is unto

you, and to your children,

and to all that are afar off,

even as many as the Lord

our God shall call.

Acts 2:39