A few years ago I began having problems with one of my hips. It was hard for me to move in the morning, and sometimes at night I would be awakened by pain. I would pray, declaring the truth about myself, that I am made in God’s image and likeness. I would find some relief from the pain, and for that I was grateful.

Several friends and acquaintances seemed to be having similar problems, and struggles with mobility appeared frequently in the news, commercials, and even sitcoms.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy writes: “A new name for an ailment affects people like a Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one hastens to get it” (p. 197). This statement is next to the marginal heading, “Pangs caused by the press.”

When I thought of that, I stopped and considered how “popular” hip problems seemed to be. I also recalled this from Science and Health: “We must seek the undivided garment, the whole Christ, as our first proof of Christianity, for Christ, Truth, alone can furnish us with absolute evidence” (p. 142).

Keeping my thought “undivided” meant keeping my thought grounded in the one God, and this brought a definite shift in my thought. I knew I didn’t need a hip replacement; I needed to replace the belief of a woman struggling with a bad hip with the truth of man’s (everyone’s) perfect spiritual being as God’s reflection. So I prayed to more fully understand God as the creator of all, and myself as God’s child, whole and complete, not divided.

Starting my prayers with this understanding of God and His creation meant starting with the idea of perfection and replacing my material sense of self with my true identity as God’s beautiful, fully functioning child, perfect in every way. I loved considering this statement from Science and Health: “The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the truth of being, to destroy the error. This corrective is an alterative, reaching to every part of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches ‘the joints and marrow,’ and it restores the harmony of man” (p. 423).

During this time, my middle child was deciding on a college. He was a tennis player and was being invited by wonderful schools to come and visit their campuses. But they were all so far away, and the thought of him being far away was really challenging me. As I considered my tendency to think that we were “connected at the hip,” I realized why I was fearful of letting him go. But I also knew I had a deep desire for him to fit in wherever he was.

As I sat in our den, praying, I noticed my youngest son’s Legos at one end of our coffee table and many college brochures intended for my college-bound son at the other end. As I picked up one of the brochures, I just happened to open it to the student activities page, and there in bold type were the words “Christian Science Organization.” I began to cry, and I saw this as God communicating to me, saying, “I’m here—I’m with you, and I’m with your child.” I knew then that no matter where my son would choose to go, God would always be with him. God would always be with each of my children, with my mother, my husband—with everyone I love and hold dear and with everyone I don’t even know.

As I then looked at the pile of plastic building blocks I thought, “We are not put together as if we were Legos, trying to follow directions and piece ourselves together with one another. There is a divine law of order and freedom being expressed in our lives, and it is a beautiful promise of God’s love for each of His children. It is God’s law, so it is always wonderful and correct for everyone.”

I thought about this line from a hymn: “Love’s work and Love must fit” (Mary Alice Dayton, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 51). This helped me to see that there is nothing out of place, out of joint, wrongly divided, or incorrect in God or in His creation, and that all of us are always in our right place.

At that moment I stood up, completely free. It was a complete healing, and I am still today completely free of any difficulty with my hip.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: “What is the model before mortal mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you reproducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding it before your gaze continually. The result is that you are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline and deformity of matter models.

“To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way” (p. 248).

I love Christian Science so much! It is so precise, not guesswork, and it is alive and well and healing. I cannot say that enough.