In raising our family of four lively children, we have had ample opportunities to meet challenges of both daily life and emergencies with prayer alone. Turning to God in earnest prayer was our first choice for help, because we found time and again it was the most effective, quick, and unobtrusive healing method.

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.