Turning to God

(Written especially for young people)

I GREW up on a hill that had a steep, winding road going down to the city it overlooked. Often my sister and I and our friends would ride down the hill on our bicycles to the local convenience store to buy candy and ice cream. We always had a contest going back home to see who could ride her bike all the way up the hill without getting off to walk. But one time I fell going down the hill. I went right over the handlebars and hit the street face first.I went to the side of the road and began to pray, and my sister and her friend came back to help me. We all attended the Christian Science Sunday School in our town, and they told me that I was always embraced by God's love. They reassured me that He was caring for me. As we walked our bikes back up the hill, we were all praying.Praying helped me feel better, and by the time I got home I wasn't frightened anymore. But when I looked in the mirror I saw that my face was covered with scrapes. I didn't feel any pain, but the thought of having to go to school looking like that was embarrassing. My mom was home, though, and she comforted me. And my parents and I continued to pray.I found the place where Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Christian Science Church, writes in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: ``Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony'' (p. 424). I reasoned that if accidents are unknown to God, then they have to be unknown to man, God's perfect creation. Man is the spiritual reflection of God, not a physical body that can fall and get hurt. I could understand that God's knowledge of Himself and His reflection includes me as His child, but excludes evil, which He does not create. God knows everything, so if He doesn't know evil, it can't be real. God's creation is entirely good, so only good can be expressed by man.I began to understand that to ``leave the mortal basis of belief'' I had to look to God, Spirit. As I turned to Him in prayer, I had a better sense of man's perfection and loveliness as God's image. And before long the marks were gone.The Bible teaches, ``The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore'' (Psalms 121:8). God is always with His children because He is ever present, so there is never a moment when we can be without God. Because His presence doesn't include accidents, we can turn to Him with confidence and trust, knowing He directs our lives perfectly. Then we feel more of His healing presence and power.Christ Jesus, the Son of God, always turned to the Father in times of need. He was directed where to go and what to say. And because he was so sure of God's ever-presence and love, he was able to heal people and overcome all kinds of difficulties. We all can turn to God's ``unerring direction'' to govern us and to ``preserve'' our comings and goings. I learned to turn to God and to acknowledge His ever-presence and His love for His children. And that wasn't the last time I was healed by listening to Him in prayer! I'm still learning to do this, but I've come to turn to Him more often and more trustingly--and to find healing and peace as a result.