A lesson from my donkey

I own several donkeys, and I observed something with one of them recently that illustrated for me an important point in Christian Science.

We had poured a new concrete floor in the barn, and after it had set, this donkey walked in to explore the new digs. But when he turned around to come back out, the sunlight reflecting off of the new concrete made it look like the floor was water rather than solid ground. He pressed himself up against the back of the barn and would not move.

I called to him to come out. I offered treats to lure him out. I tried to lead him out with a halter. But he was not going anywhere.

Finally, I walked back and forth on the concrete, over and over again, until in an instant the illusion broke. With that, the donkey followed me out and got his treat and his freedom. He saw through the false appearance and understood what had been true all along.

Reflecting on what the donkey experienced and how spiritual healing happens, I saw that healing spiritually is about progressing in our understanding of what’s spiritually real and perceiving more clearly that all evil is nothing more than illusion posing as reality. Discord is never from God, good.

When Christ Jesus healed people, he ministered to them from the place of knowing that he and all of us are inherently spiritual and have a deep completeness that extends beyond difficult situations. Based on that, Jesus was able to say with confidence to those he healed that they were “made whole” (John 5:14). He didn’t tell them they might be whole or could be in the future. He understood that it was their here-and-now reality, and people were healed.

Christian Science explains that Jesus’ healing practice was an outgrowth of this understanding that life is 100% spiritual – inseparable from its source, Spirit. We are created in the likeness of Spirit, fully spiritual, and simply can’t be in two states of being at the same time.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, understood that God, Spirit, is All, that therefore no true substance is separate from God, and that this is a foundational spiritual law. She writes in the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “... all is Spirit and spiritual” (p. 331).

It follows that anything that is not of Spirit, God, can be understood to be illusion. She also writes, “... the fetters of man’s finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit” (Science and Health, p. 223).

When we believe that we are separate from God and thus feel separated from the answers we are seeking, that can really feel as though we are trapped in a situation. But evil’s suggestion of separation from Spirit never has the power to make an illusion real.

The Apostle Paul explored this question, asking, in essence, what can separate us from the love of God and His Christ. And then he gave a thorough answer, which can be summarized as, “Nothing!” (see Romans 8:35, 38, 39). Creator and creation, source and expression, Love and beloved offspring, are inseparably linked.

Substance and life are never separate from the harmony of Spirit, God. We are never truly trapped in a condition of vulnerability called matter. We can wake up from that lie, that illusion, and know ourselves as spiritual, whole, and harmonious. We are inseparable from God, even when there is physical or mental evidence saying the opposite.

Note, though, that spiritual healing is not about Spirit fixing matter through prayer. Spiritual healing is about deriving thoughts regarding our true, spiritual identity from Spirit, and this causes discordant symptoms to dissolve into what Science and Health calls their “native nothingness” (p. 365). Healing is about the already-intact harmony of Spirit being revealed and felt – the “made whole” experience.

When I walked back and forth across that concrete, I showed that sweet donkey what was real all along. And when we are struggling with something difficult, prayer does that for us. Prayer reveals our innate and incorruptible spiritual wholeness. Through prayer-inspired clarity, the illusions simply break, and health and harmony are the natural outcome.

Adapted from an article published in the April 21, 2025, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.