A Thanksgiving healing

The following experience stands out for me as a landmark because it clearly showed me the scientific nature of spiritual healing.

One Thanksgiving holiday, I pulled a rack of pumpkin pies out of a hot oven only to discover they needed to bake a little longer. I’d used an oven mitt on my left hand, but the rack was too heavy to be pushed back into place with only one hand. I couldn’t find the other oven mitt and decided to use just the tips of the fingers of my right hand to help push the rack. I lined up my bare fingers along the edge of the rack, gave it a good solid push, and shut the oven door.

I only realized what I’d done when searing pain shot through my arm and felt like it was filling my whole body. It was obvious to me that no amount of ice or cold water—home remedies I might have used in the past—would be of any help whatsoever. And I knew professional emergency assistance couldn’t possibly be obtained quickly enough. The only help I was sure could meet the need—and which I was accustomed to turning to for immediate healing—was Christian Science treatment.

“To remove the error producing disorder,” wrote Mary Baker Eddy, “you must calm and instruct mortal mind with immortal Truth” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 415). As my thoughts ran wild with fear, I went into another room to calm down, and began to think and reason through the lessons I’d learned in Christian Science.

I acknowledged God, good, as all—all there is, everywhere, despite the pain that felt so real at that moment. The thought came to me that pain “is fear made manifest on the body” (Science and Health, p. 493). I understood that statement to mean pain is what fear would feel like to matter, if matter could be made to feel afraid. I realized that matter in itself, like a rock or a piece of metal, has no awareness of its own existence and no perception of danger. A sense of danger or fear is entirely mental. I then reasoned that if pain is a manifestation of fear, then pain is also entirely mental and not a physical condition. I then understood pain to be a function of fear—the amount of pain I was experiencing was directly related to the amount of fear I was feeling.

From my own previous experience I knew I had the ability to choose (or control) which thoughts or concepts to think or entertain and which ones not to. Therefore I knew I had the ability to exclude fear/pain from my consciousness. Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesinstructs the spiritual healer to “take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action” (Science and Health, p. 393).

It occurred to me at that point that there really wasn’t any reason for me to feel pain in my whole body, and the sickening sense of pain subsided measurably, down to my fingertips. The next instant, I realized there was no reason to be afraid at all, and the pain entirely left.

I was able to return to the kitchen to wash the dishes in hot dishwater, and then take the pies out of the oven. Twice that evening, the feeling of intense pain returned briefly. But it left when I again recognized the pain as a suggestion that didn’t originate with God, so I therefore didn’t have any obligation to accept it or experience it.

The next day I noticed only the tiniest bit of peeling skin around the edges of perfectly normal, pink finger tips. (Before this, I hadn’t examined my hands, but instead had taken to heart the counsel to “look away from the body into Truth and Love” [Science and Health, p. 261]).

Joy filled that Thanksgiving Day dinner when we ate those pumpkin pies—and every year I’m reminded of God’s great love for all of us.

Carol Eberlein | Weston, Massachusetts, US