A Miracle?
A SIMPLE prayer changes a life. Someone is completely healed of an illness that was diagnosed terminal. A person survives under an avalanche for days. Are these miracles? Cynics might say, "Luck." "Coincidence." "A wrong diagnosis." Others might say, "Yes, a miracle."
One definition of miracle is "an extraordinary event manifesting a super-natural work of God." But doesn't this imply that God helps us on some occasions and not others? The textbook of Christian Science says a miracle is "that which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly ..." ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, Pg. 591).
Explaining the healing laws of God that Christ Jesus practiced, Christian Science refutes the commonly held belief that the universe and man are governed primarily by physical laws, which God occasionally overrules for whatever reason.
Mrs. Eddy wrote, "In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science" (Pg. 107). Humanity sometimes loses sight of the power of God - Life, Truth, Love. But His laws are always at hand. They are not supernatural, but are the unchangeable laws of good throughout all time. When faithfully practiced, they can be proved to always yield the same good results; hence the word Science.
"Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the communicator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and humanity," wrote Eddy (Science and Health, Pg. 72). This explains how Moses' sister Miriam was healed of leprosy. How Elisha raised a boy presumed dead. How Hannah was healed of childlessness.
Jesus said: "I can of mine own self do nothing .... My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:30, 17). He healed by appealing to God's law of love. He stilled a tempest, multiplied food to feed thousands, raised the dead, healed the sick and sinning, all in defiance of physical laws. Science and Health elucidates the divine Principle of Christian healing, proving it practical and demonstrable.
Jesus' healings, sometimes seen as miracles, did not belong to his time only, but rather illustrated that the authority and power of divine Principle are available in all ages, including today. He prophesied, "These signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17, 18).
The Science of Christ fulfills this prophecy by revealing our spiritual relation to God. And this brings peace of mind, and health to the organs and functions of the body. When we experience pain or suffering, it is because thought is not in line with God's laws. Healing begins when we acknowledge our true identity as the spiritual reflection of God and open thought, in humility, to the reality that God's love for us is a law of well-being here and now. When this truth is made clear, it's like light filling a darkened room. Our thought is filled with the light of divine Life, Truth, and Love, and healing comes.
One testimonial of healing, beginning on page 694 of Science and Health, says more about spiritual law and miracles: "All my life had been spent in semi-invalidism, and I seemed destined to a life of suffering. In three weeks after beginning Science and Health, to my joyful surprise I found myself a well man, sound physically, and uplifted spiritually.... I learned ... that His [God's] children are really governed in peace and harmony by spiritual law, and as the right understanding of it is gained, the other things soon follow, bringing a peace the human concept can never know."
This is preceded by the following observations on the part of the testifier: "Two sentences [from Science and Health] especially appealed to me: 'The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin' (p. 262), and, 'For right reasoning, there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence' (p. 492). I had found the keynote to the Science of being as taught in this marvellous book, and persevered until a glimpse of the new heavens and new earth came, for the old were passing away."
