Quick healing after persistent prayer

One beautiful fall day I pulled up my windows to let in fresh air, and then pulled the top sash down to let the warm air out. But two of my fingers became caught between the sashes. I managed to get them out by pushing down the bottom sash with my other hand. But the pain in my fingers became so intense that for a moment I couldn’t think at all.

My experience in Christian Science has taught me that God is always in control, and that I can turn to God for healing. I’ve found that this truth is a powerful tool to heal all hurts, overcome all problems, and conquer all challenges. So I immediately focused my thoughts and started to pray.

I’ve learned that God created each of us in His image, male and female. As a Christian Scientist, this means to me that since God is Spirit, we therefore are created spiritually, not materially. Spirit takes precedence over matter. I affirmed in prayer that there are no accidents in God’s creation, a concept explained in Science and Health: “Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection” (Science and Health, p. 424).

In order to help me pray more effectively, I was very careful to avoid looking at my fingers. I didn’t want the image of injury to influence me as I prayed to see my spiritual and true perfection. Science and Health states that you must control evil thoughts, such as fear and pain, immediately, so that they don’t take control (see Science and Health, p. 234).

At this point my fingers were throbbing. It occurred to me that they might be broken, so I had to keep insisting that God’s children aren’t vulnerable to harm and are perfect in His sight—which included me. Matthew 5:48 says, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” To me this command of Jesus means that God wants us to strive to realize that we are already perfect because as God’s expression we are spiritual alone—not a material being trying to be spiritual and perfect.

About 15 minutes later, the pain had abated, and I was able to resume my housework.

Although I was tempted, I refused to look at my fingers the next day, when there was still some pain. I kept praying with the same ideas, but I felt I needed new inspiration, so I prayed for enlightenment.

Almost immediately this thought came to me: “Think about the little girl who badly wounded her finger.” This is an account Mary Baker Eddy related in Science and Health about a little girl of her acquaintance who had “badly wounded” her finger. When the girl’s mother spoke about the injury, the girl said, “There is no sensation in matter,” and resumed her play (Science and Health, p. 237). I started to pray with the truth I felt was central to this story, which could be summed up in this statement that appears later in the book: “Keep distinctly in thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit, outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life and sensation” (Science and Health, p. 396).

Within short order the pain in my fingers was completely gone. I still had some minor stiffness, so I kept praying with all the truths I’d been holding to.

When I finally looked at my fingers the next day there was no mark on them, nor sign of bruising. Even the fingernails looked normal, in spite of the fact that they had been so tightly pinched between the sashes. Both fingers now looked and felt entirely perfect, without the slightest pain or stiffness. I can’t remember now which hand had been injured.

I’m so grateful for Christian Science. I know I’m being cared for in the best way when healings like this happen. I know God is right here, right now and always, caring for me and showing me how to follow Him in order to better my life.

Mary Ellen Dukes | Reevesville, South Carolina, US