A quick healing
I was on my way to camp! The night before the final leg of our drive, my mom, sisters, and I stayed with some friends who have a trampoline. The daughter of these friends, my sisters, and I were all jumping on their trampoline, and I was having a great time and was laughing really hard. But then, as I was jumping, I landed awkwardly and hurt my ankle. I got off the trampoline and was able to get up the stairs to the guest room, but my ankle was in a lot of pain.
I had to decide: Which “witness” was I going to believe?
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My mom came upstairs and immediately started reading to me from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Many people have been healed by reading and praying with the ideas from Science and Health, so I felt comforted and cared for. And listening to the truths about God, Spirit, and all He created, and just picking up tidbits to hold on to here and there was extremely helpful.
After we read together for a while, my mom suggested that I call a Christian Science practitioner. I had never called a practitioner before, so I didn’t really know what to expect. What I did know was that the practitioner would pray for me and that I could be healed.
One thought the practitioner shared that really stood out to me was that there were supposedly two different “witnesses” to what had happened on the trampoline. One witness was what the Bible calls “the carnal mind” (see Romans 8:7). This is the mind that would oppose God by presenting images of accident, limitation, pain, and suffering. It was trying to tell me that it was there, saw my ankle get hurt, and that was that. The other witness was God, Truth. Truth was saying that He knows me, that I am His perfect reflection, and that there could be no injury of any kind because “God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect” (Science and Health, p. 470). The practitioner asked me which “witness” was I going to believe. Since God is Truth, I knew that was what I wanted to believe.
I went to bed feeling much better, but the next morning I was still having some trouble walking. I checked in with the practitioner again, and she shared this passage from the Bible: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39). Just to be funny she said we could add trampolines to the list of things that can’t separate us from God’s love! It made me laugh, and I felt peaceful knowing this was true.
At camp I was able to participate in moving luggage, and during all of this moving and lifting I felt almost no pain. I was feeling freer and freer.
It dawned on me that I had just run. I was completely healed.
After lunch I talked with the practitioner again, and she shared a Bible story with me. The story was about Peter and John going to the temple and seeing a man who can’t walk (see Acts 3:1–8). When this man asked Peter and John for alms (money or food), Peter gave him something better. He said, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” She pointed out that the Bible doesn’t say that the man sort of walked with a crutch for a few days and eventually walked carefully with minimal pain. He was lifted up and immediately received all the strength he needed to walk, leap, and praise God! I loved how she really brought to light this idea that immediate healing can occur today, because the same healing Christ-power that Peter understood is still here to be understood and felt. As I went about the rest of my day, I prayed with the fact that Christ’s power is immediate and complete, so I didn’t need to experience any aftereffects of any kind.
Later, as I ran to catch up with my mom, she heard me calling her name, turned around, and saw me running toward her. “I guess you’re feeling better,” she said when I caught up with her. I must have given her a confused look, because she had to clarify by gesturing toward my ankle. I looked down, then back at her. It dawned on me that I had just run. I was completely healed.
A few weeks later, I went on a hike and had a little incident with the same ankle. But, knowing that I had already proved that Truth was the only witness, and that only what Truth witnesses is true, I was able to keep hiking and having fun. And I had no problems with that ankle for the rest of the summer.
When I returned home and shared this healing with my Sunday School teacher, she showed me a verse in Nahum: “What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time” (1:9). The last part about “affliction shall not rise up the second time” really stuck out to me. It completely overturned the suggestion that something bad can keep recurring. It is emphatic. Not “maybe” something will come up again, or “it’s possible,” but it shall not.
I am so grateful for all I learned about God and Christian Science through this healing.