My wife, our friend and I went to listen to a concert in one of the well known Halls in Melbourne. After parking our car two elderly ladies showed us where the entrance was and we began walking toward it. Coming down from a small asphalt slope on the way we suddenly heard an alarming sound behind us, turned around and saw that one of these ladies had fallen heavily. She sustained a deep wound on her forehead and was bleeding. She wanted to see a doctor, her friend and myself helped her up. However, she became pale and could not proceed. We sat her down on some nearby stairs, and she closed her eyes, her body became seemingly lifeless, and I realized that she lost consciousness. An ambulance was called.
A suggestion that came to me first was that she is slipping away. Being a student of divine Science and having a strong desire to help her, the idea that God is our life came into my thought. In Science and Health with key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy I learned that this statement is true of everybody. On page 425 Science and Health says: “Mortal man will be less mortal, when he learns that matter never sustained existence and can never destroy God, who is man’s Life.”
Supported by these ideas I was able mentally to refuse that suggestion, vigorously saying to myself, “NO!” Based on what I knew to be true and as well to the need of the moment, I said to that lady with confidence and all my love, “God is your life!”. In a few moments, still lying on the stairs, she opened her eyes and I helped her to sit. She stared into my eyes but could not speak. Refusing to accept what material senses were telling me, I felt lead to repeat to her “God is your life!” Immediately her face changed, her eyes lit up and her life seemed to be coming back to her body. She said to me twice: “Thank you. You’ve helped me.”
Even though her wound was still bleeding, she obviously felt much stronger and even expressed the desire to go to the concert. When the ambulance arrived about five minutes later, there seemed to be only the need to clean her wound. She was fully conscious and was able to tell two attendants her name and address, and I told them what had happened. They thanked me, and drove away. After this incident we were still in time for the concert, and enjoyed it the more.
It reminded me how vital it was for me to always keep my thoughts pure and unselfish, to daily live in the consciousness of that harmony which comes from God. It illustrated me how good it was that I could dismiss the temptation of seeming pleasure in material wellbeing, in the possession of things like a house or a car earlier in my life. It also showed to me clearly that keeping my desires high and pure blessed a stranger in emergency. I felt the truth of these words in one of Paul’s letters: “…godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1.Tim.6: 6)
An experience on a sidewalk in my city spoke to me again of true satisfaction in life. To be satisfied and happy meant to nurture God-like thoughts in my consciousness, to watch for and ever more become aware of the existing divine harmony and peace inside of me. And most importantly to me, that incident on a sidewalk reassured me in what I believed, that I indeed did not have to witness anything, really, anything, that was not coming from God, who is ever-presence and from whom only good can come.
