Pathway Personified by Gail Gupton

I happened to be born into a household where the reliance on God for healing was considered the normal thing to do. My childlike trust prompted me to believe that what my mother told me to be Truth was true. And although my understanding and practice of Truth was just a pinhead compared to what God really is, I must have glimpsed some nature of God in order for it to stay with me throughout adulthood.

Although it was not my own demonstration of the nature of God revealed, I was the subject of healing as a 10-year-old. I believe the experience became the inner foundation for the challenges that I have faced, to rely on God to meet those challenges and to continue searching for a greater understanding of my true identity.

When my father and I were traveling along a two-lane road, a tire came off our vehicle and threw us into the path of an oncoming car. I can still recall the minute details of the smells and sounds that followed. I was thrown onto the pavement after which the truck in which we were riding tipped over, trapping me underneath. It was only minutes after passersby pulled me out that the truck burst into flames.

The doctors at the hospital to which I was taken diagnosed my injuries as critical. It was stated to my mother that I may not live through the night. And if I did live, I would most likely be in the hospital for six months minimum, after which much therapy would be required for me to walk again, and even at that, one leg may be shorter than the other.

My mother dismissed the doctor's grim prognosis as not being from God. Her prayers and those of other spiritually-minded people in her circle were ones of knowing the truth about God and His child. The child, of course being me at that time, and the truth being that all that God creates is perfect - always has been and always will be.

I responded well to their prayers. With no medication and no setting of bones, I was allowed to go home 11 days later and within two weeks following my dismissal, I was back in school and playing on the playground to the astonishment of all who had believed the impossible. This is a documented case of healing through prayer.

Since that long-ago event, which undoubtedly molded my firm belief in God, I have faced numerous situations where I have turned within, found God to be there, and received guidance, direction, peace, joy, and contentment. I have discovered during years hence that God is indeed wherever I am. And more than that - I have discovered that God is I am and that all that God is, I am. All that God has is mine and He has everything I could ever need or want.

This is my blessing. And no matter how many waters try to furl and crash onto my seashore, with the realization that God is not only in the water but is the very water itself, peace is restored. How can anything be discordant when God is All? Oh, yes, I can be tempted - and have been many times - to believe something other than God exists. I have been tempted to believe in some outside power or force beyond my control, one that destroys and causes me to suffer. But each time, as Jesus said to his temptor, "Get thee behind me", each time I realize in my inner being that God is omnipotent and really understand what that means, really feel the truth of it, the shadow disappears with the dawning of the light. And the temptation is seen for what it was all along, only a temptation, not the truth at all.

If I was unexpectedly given some false news that a loved one had perished or had been injured, I would feel the pain one would expect upon receiving such news. But the very moment, the very instant, I discovered the news was false, a sense of release would come upon me and it would free me from my fears and grief. This is what I have experienced when the nature of God and the truth of who I am as God being comes to my consciousness. In just such an instant I am released - from worry, from fear, from ills, from "you name it" - anything that is unlike God just isn't real and I feel blessed in knowing this from within.

But even with this, my search continues, for I know that God is greater than I could ever imagine in a trillion years. My search to know God, to feel His presence constantly, to commune with Him and to be able to commune with Him instantly, knowing that He is here, where I am, this is my continuing goal. Every day I understand a little more than the day before. Bit by bit, the light shines brighter. Until the day comes when I meet God face to face, the journey will continue. Yes, in spite of seeming challenges, opportunities avail. How else can one grow?