Quick healing of wasp sting

It’s lovely to read testimonies in the Christian Science Sentinel, which so often remind me of my own healings.

There’s one healing that, as I look back, has been leading me to the understanding that God truly is All. It wasn’t just the immediate freedom I had of the effects of a wasp sting that made this particular healing significant. It was also how from that experience I’ve come to see that, like Daniel in the lions’ den, we don’t have to suffer or be touched by anything contrary to good.

Soon after a difficult separation from my former husband, I’d acquired my own house. One day I was sitting in my small garden feeling so grateful for this new home and the beautiful day. Then I felt a sharp prick on the back of my hand. I looked down to see a wasp and realized I’d been stung. This hadn’t happened to me before, but I’d heard other people talk about being stung. I took very little notice of it initially because I needed to go out. But when I got into my car, I was surprised to see that my hand and arm were beginning to swell and had become very painful.

Immediately these lines from Science and Health came to me: “Understanding the control which Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless. All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (Science and Health, p. 514). With my realization of this fact, the swelling simply disappeared before my eyes, and the pain left, too. And that was the end of it.

When I’d thought of those lines, it was as if God had spoken directly to me—it wasn’t just words, it was the truth. And I hadn’t the slightest hesitation in accepting the idea that God’s creatures wouldn’t hurt each other. I’d been prepared through my morning Bible study and prayers to accept wholeheartedly what was true. I knew there couldn’t possibly be anything that could hurt me, because I was God’s beloved, held in His care. I realized that God couldn’t and didn’t make a tiny little creature (or large for that matter) that could poison me or harm me, or anyone, in any way. God is pure goodness and all power. God made all, and it was good, as we read in Genesis 1.

I am so grateful for the many healings I’ve had. Each has been a promise that, like the wasp sting, nothing has the power to disrupt the harmony of my life or leave a lasting scar. Shortly after the incident with the wasp, I met and married a man who has for the last 16 years been my best friend.

Anne Mepham | Wakefield, England