Testimony of Healing December 22, 1973 Issue

Since my first testimony appeared in the Sentinel in November,...

Jack F. Petermann with contributions from Lilia F. Quintana

Since my first testimony appeared in the Sentinel in November, 1958, I have had many additional reasons to be grateful for Christian Science. My increased awareness of the spiritual nature of all things has enabled me to conquer, in some degree, problems of physical well-being, supply, employment, and personal relationships. One of my favorite Bible references that has helped me greatly in the understanding of spiritual reality is, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (Ps. 119:18).

Recently my fourteen-year-old son had a healing of what appeared to be a brain concussion, which resulted from a blow on the head in his physical education class at school. It happened about ten thirty in the morning, and I brought him home at noon, as he did not seem to know who he was or where he was. We got busy at home declaring the allness of divine Mind, the nothingness of matter, and that his true identity as a child of God was intact.

I repeated "the scientific statement of being" from our textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and I saw his lips move along with mine. The statement reads (p. 468): "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." When I returned to work, my wife played the recordings of Mrs. Eddy's hymns to the boy, and she played others from the Christian Science Hymnal on the piano. When I returned home some time later, his restlessness was gone, and he was lying quietly on the sofa. I picked up a copy of the Sentinel to read, starting with the testimonies, and at five thirty he looked at me and said, "How did I get here?" Shortly afterward he asked for some food, and was perfectly coherent from that time on.