Burn Quickly Healed Through Prayer

I was raised in Christian Science and during my childhood I had a number of healings brought about through the prayers of my mother.  The first instantaneous healing I had on my own took place when I was on summer break from college and working in Boston.  I shared an apartment on Commonwealth Avenue with two girls from school.  It was our arrangement to take turns cleaning up after meals. On this occasion as I was preparing to wash the dishes, I picked up a cast iron skillet from the gas stove. Unbeknownst to me, the burner had just been turned off and the skillet was searing hot. I carried it to the sink before dropping it and burned my hand severely.  In intense pain I turned immediately to God, and without looking at my hand, walked into the next room and directly to my desk where I picked up Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I opened it at random and my eye fell on the following statement (page 393:18):

 “Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law of any kind when it is self-evident that matter can have no pain nor sensation.”

I was so astounded at how specific this was, how directly and absolutely it applied to my situation, met my need, that I was just about overcome with gratitude. I was instantaneously healed. There was no more pain and no mark.  A few weeks later, during the aftermath of a hurricane, the old French doors in our second story apartment blew open and were banging in the wind. As I went to close them, some of the windowpanes smashed and cut my hand badly.  I turned with confidence to that wonderful healing I had just experienced a few weeks before and the pain and bleeding stopped. A quick healing of the scar followed.   All these years later it still is a wonder to me that in a book of 700 pages, the precise answer to my need was at hand when I turned to it. It stands as a landmark to me that God is indeed a very present help in trouble. 

 S.M.

Then one day I heard chain saws and found the greenery had all disappeared. I met the new owner of the now quite visible house. He said he planned to fix it up, rent it, then sell it. Shortly, he poured a cement slab in the formerly green yard and the house was rented to a single parent with a basketball-playing ten-year-old.

I learned that this little family had moved from a cramped city apartment where he had not been able to practice basketball outside. I was happy that the boy now had a place to play, but I was very dismayed that my privacy and quiet had been replaced with barren cement, glaring lights at night, and the thunk, thunk, thunk of constantly bouncing balls. I decided to have new double-pane windows and doors installed, but this did not eliminate the annoying sounds.

I knew I wasn’t going to move, so I sat myself down, thought about the situation and prayed for a solution. While I was asking God for some direction I heard the familiar sound of the basketball bouncing on the court. I looked up to see the young boy shooting hoops with a face filled with joy. Right then, instead of seeing a noisy neighbor, I saw one of God’s children expressing God’s goodness. I knew he was in his right place, and so was I.

I had an attitude change. The noise stopped bothering me. In fact, now if I don’t hear it, I miss it and when it comes again a smile comes across my face and I know we are all embraced in God’s love. In Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, page 205, it says, “When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded; whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders man’s normal drift towards the one Mind, one God, and leads human thought into opposite channels where selfishness reigns. When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His,–no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.”

D.C.

When I awoke, my neighbor said she had called 911 (the emergency number) because I appeared unconscious and she was concerned. I was not sure this was what I wanted, but I recognized that her caring was Love, God, directing her. I was taken to the hospital with my consent. There were head and face injuries and a sprained wrist. I received kind attention, mostly cleansing of the wounds, and when leaving the hospital I was given well-meaning instructions on what to look for in the days to come.

As a student of Christian Science, I recognized these instructions as mental suggestions that I needed to reject, for the expectation of continued problems would not be helpful in healing. I turned from this expectation of discoloration and pain to what I have learned in Christian Science: that Spirit, God, was never touched by an accident, so neither could I, as His expression. The physical evidence did not need to distract me from seeing and knowing this truth about my true being. When I arrived home I referred to page 194 of Science and Health, by Mrs. Eddy, where it says:

“A change in human belief changes all the physical symptoms, and determines a case for better or for worse. When one’s false belief is corrected, Truth sends a report of health over the body.”

In the next few days, my appearance improved greatly and was soon back to normal. I had no pain, dizziness, or headaches. I also remained alert. My neighbors were astounded at the quick healing. I attribute this elimination of the effects of sudden meeting with concrete to the understanding of God in Christian Science.

I am very grateful that this Science of Christianity came into my life manty years ago. It has blessed many around me as well.

J.S.

I’d like to share one healing that has meant a lot to me. Over the course of several months I noticed increasing pain in my joints, and especially my hands and wrists. I love to cook, and my favorite pan is a cast iron frying pan I’ve had for 30 years. But I became unable to lift the pan without using both hands, and even that was painful. One day I realized that I didn’t have to just suffer with this pain, but that I could pray for God’s help. I quit thinking about buying a lighter frying pan, and every time I felt pain in my joints I prayed. It seemed to me that I was dealing with a problem that was related to age, so I prayed something like this.

Genesis 1 says that man is made in the image and likeness of God, and God must be eternal and immortal. Christ Jesus refers to man’s eternal life, and so I prayed to understand better my own life as the image of the eternal God. I felt certain that God didn’t have painful joints; in fact, when that thought came to me, I knew it was laughingly ridiculous. I reminded myself of that line in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy [God’s] will be done in earth, as it is in heaven,” and I added the spiritual interpretation of that verse as Mary Baker Eddy shared in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, which reads, “enable us to know, as in heaven so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.” I realized that omnipotent God could surely heal me, and even more, I felt that as the image of God, I was already whole and did not include any condition that would indicate a decline in my life.

I continued to work, and cook, as before, and in a very short time I realized that for a while I had been completely free from pain in any joints and that I had been using my cast iron pan regularly, even lifting it from the stove hot and full of dinner. I’m sure you can see how grateful I was, and still am, for this evidence of God’s tender, healing care. But my gratitude is greater still for a glimpse of the fact that our lives are eternal, and that any apparently self-destructive quality, in our characters or in our bodies, will be corrected as we gain clearer understanding of God and our real individuality as God’s children.

G.S.

I asked him to show me his arm. When he did, the picture of two bones pointing in opposite directions tried to alarm me, but I’ve learned how to pray about all things in Christian Science so I started to pray instead of succumbing to fear.

In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy states that students of Christian Science may leave the setting of bones to physicians. [See page 401.] My son was very scared and wanted to go to the hospital, so I took him.

We live approximately 20 minutes from the nearest hospital and during the drive I prayed the following prayer, “Father, help me to not be mesmerized by the frightening picture in my back seat. Help each one in this car (I had my son’s two friends with me too who are not students of Christian Science) feel the peaceful sense of Divine Love’s presence. Help me and all to realize the scientific statement of being vividly, here and now, to know clearly that there can never be a separation between God and his idea – that there are no accidents in God’s kingdom.”

When we arrived at the hospital no one seemed interested that we were there or that we waited over an hour before they invited Gary in for an x-ray. Gary’s father, my former husband and not a Christian Scientist, met us at the hospital. He came into the exam room with us.

Gary complained about intense pain in his arm and asked for a pain pill. As the nurse left the room to get it for him, he and I prayed together to see past his physical form to the pure state of consciousness he has as a beloved child of God. We used the Lord’s Prayer with Mrs. Eddy’s interpretation as well as the Scientific Statement of Being to vanquish the notion that physical sense could rule an image of God.

By the time the nurse came back in the room with the pill, Gary was sleeping peacefully, no longer in pain. The nurse was gone less than five minutes.

It’s important to note that as I prayed with my son, his father sat at the end of his bed, watching the transformation that was taking place with his son. With tears in his eyes he watched the immediate result of our prayer. With broken speech he said, “I’m very proud of you.”

The doctors in the hospital could not set Gary’s arm that night and referred us to a specialist the following day. They wrapped it, and sent us home saying that they couldn’t do anything further for him.

The rest of the healing took place over the course of a few weeks, applying prayer to govern the practical steps we needed to take with the physicians helping us. No medications were used during this time and all worked together harmoniously until the cast was removed and Gary returned to his normal play.

K.C.

A recent healing occurred when one morning I could not open my left hand. It was swollen shut and quite painful. Because I am a left-handed person, this was an immediate problem, and I was tempted to be afraid. Because of my study of Christian Science, however, I knew that Mind (God) is in charge of my being and that matter is not. I turned to page 468 of our textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, where Mary Baker Eddy asks “What is the to the scientific statement of being?” She answers,

“There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.”

This statement of truth carried me through the healing, which took about a week. This is just one of many physical healings over many years which I can attribute to the spiritual education of this textbook, Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science.

J.S.

After five years in a job that was very special and rewarding, I was informed that my job was being abolished and my small staff was to be replaced. Earlier I had suggested a reorganization plan but it did not include these changes so this news came as quite a shock to me.

At about the same time, I sold my home and invested all of the proceeds in a real estate investment plan which was recommended by a friend. After a couple of months I became aware that the key player in that plan had deceived me and absconded with all of my funds.

During this difficult period I developed a severe infection on one hand which was quite uncomfortable and necessitated bandaging.

I prayed earnestly and deeply for comfort, guidance and a greater sense of God’s unfailing care. I had to resist the temptation to blame myself for suggesting the reorganization in the first place and for being tempted to get into an investment that promised great gains without first giving it more prayerful consideration. I engaged the prayerful help of a Christian Science Practitioner, whose tender encouragement and support brought me much peace when everything seemed to be going wrong. Nevertheless, during this very difficult period I continued to express my heartfelt gratitude to God for all of the things I did have to be grateful for. To name a few, I had family and friends, a nice place to live, and I never really doubted that I would always have the supply that I needed.

Soon inspirations came that led me to the right steps to take that would result in adjusting the entire situation. This time I paused to pray and make sure the plan was divinely inspired and not my own will taking charge.

I requested a transfer back to the department I had left to accept the better job. Fortunately, my better judgement had been to take a leave of absence and not resign from my previous job. At that time, several others were also seeking reinstatement. To my great relief, even though the others had greater priority, I was not only reinstated but I was given the one and only job I really felt was suited for me. All of the others who needed transfers were also reinstated. About the same time my hand was completely healed.

I was also led to engage a well-known law firm to pursue the matter of my investment and, although it took about ten years, eventually I was able to recover most of my investment. I was able to work evenings to supplement my income to pay for the lawyer.

Much later I came to realize that the job I had accepted and held for the last fifteen years of my professional career was ideal for me and although it had not the status of the earlier job, it was richly rewarding and not nearly so demanding and stressful. I knew I was really in my right place and I felt I was able to make a difference. Also, I learned a good lesson in turning to God first, and humbly seeking divine guidance rather than listening to friends who meant well but were considering only the apparent benefits and were not necessarily divinely inspired.

There have been other times in my life when I have had to make my way through deep waters but Christian Science has always provided me with the understanding of my safe place in the divine economy, my spiritual nature as the image and likeness of God, and an awareness of His power and willingness to bring a greater sense of harmony into my life through His great love. In our textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, she assures us, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” Relying on this truth has always helped me to patiently await the unfoldment of its promise. Sometimes the outcome is prompt but sometimes it takes longer to unfold and even longer to appreciate its lessons, rightness and blessings.

D.W.

When my wife was pregnant with out first son, she went to a doctor who worked with many Christian Science mothers. She had also asked a Christian Science practitioner to pray along with her during the course of the pregnancy and during the delivery. On the morning she was to have the baby, I was sitting somewhat anxiously in the waiting room when the doctor approached me, then stopped, went to the telephone, and talked for a few minutes. Then he came over to me to inform me that my wife and I had a beautiful, healthy boy. He then apologized for the phone call delay. He doctor had phoned the practitioner to tell her that according to all his medical knowledge this child should never have been born alive! You can understand that from that moment, I became an earnest student of Christian Science. That was over fifty years ago. You can understand my gratitude to God, Christ Jesus, and Mrs. Eddy for Christian Science.

R. Y.

One Christmas vacation, we were skiing with some friends, and it was almost time to go home. My older son, who was in Middle School at the time, decided to do one final run down a fun hill, but suddenly instead of seeing his grinning face at the bottom, I heard screams half-way down. I made my way over to him as quickly as I could and found he had somehow fallen on his wrist and could not get up or move the wrist. He didn’t feel he could even take his glove off without being in agony. We prayed together, right there in the snow. He attended the Christian Science Sunday School, and had learned from early childhood that God is all good and the only law-giver. Therefore, we could rely on His law and care even in this extreme situation. Gradually, we were able to get him up without using that hand and made our way to the car.

During that long drive back home, it was mostly quiet, as everyone was doing their best to pray to help their brother, but mentally for me there was a loud battle going on. On one hand I would remember wonderful statements of truth in Science and Health that were like messages right from God, like (page 424),

“Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.
“Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection.”

Then, as I was holding and pondering this, a terrible fear would assail and I would wonder what the extent of the injury was and if he would be able to go back to school when it resumed in a few days. This mental battle as to which I really believed was more powerful, this vivid picture of injured wrist or God’s ever-present loving government, waged long and vigorously for several hours. I couldn’t at the same time believe that God is supreme and that injury is supreme. Only one is, and I finally was able to trust God enough that I stopped entertaining fear. We got home, and he was able to rest that night.

We asked our son the next day if he would like it x-rayed. He had had a broken bone a few years before, and at that time had decided to have it set. It turned out to be a long and very uncomfortable process, and my son was not eager to repeat it. He opted to continue in prayer, which we did.

Progress was rapid. He was grateful for the use of a sling for one or two days, then put if off as being unnecessary. He was able to return to school with the rest of his class, uninhibited and with free use of the arm and wrist. He has had complete use of it ever since.

My gratitude is unbounded for Christ Jesus who illustrated God’s healing laws, and for Mary Baker Eddy, who had the vision and courage to write Science and Health to make those healing laws available to everyone through Christian Science.

A. L. K.