There was once a man whose son was sick. He was very concerned about his boy, so you can guess how glad he was to hear that a certain teacher, who healed people through the power of God, had come to a town quite a distance away. The father decided that if he could get this healer to go to his son, the boy could be made well again.

If he had decided that there might be too many other people asking for help, or that his boy was too far away for the healer to go to him or too sick to be cured, then this story might have had a different ending. But the father did go right to the healer and begged him to come to the house and cure his son.

What do you suppose the healer said? "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." Did he mean that the people around him would not believe in God's power unless they saw miracles, or was he testing to see if the father really trusted God?

Well, the man just asked again that the teacher come and heal his son before it was too late. This healer must have been sure that the boy's heavenly Father, God, was there, caring for the boy. He told the father, "Go thy way; thy son liveth."

And the father believed and set off for home. On the way he met his servants, coming to tell him that the son's fever had completely gone. Then the father found out that the healing had taken place right at the time he had been talking with the healer. You can see why this man and his whole household became believers in the power of God.

By now you've probably guessed that this story is in the Bible, and the healer of the sick boy was Christ Jesus. ^{See John 4:46–54 .}

Although this happened long ago, this kind of healing—proving that God is right where we most need Him—is possible today. Jesus showed how anyone can depend on God, just as he did.

But suppose we have a parent who doesn't know about Christian healing. Christian Science shows how anyone—children or adults—can turn to our heavenly Parent, Father-Mother God, who is always with us and never lets us down.

"Our Father which art in heaven," ^{Matt. 6:9.} Jesus said in the prayer we call the Lord's Prayer. In the Christian Science textbook Mrs. Eddy gives the spiritual sense of his words:

Think of the special meaning of the line "Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present." Wherever we are, at school or alone, God is right with us, because He is everywhere, and we can know this.

We call God our Father. He made us spiritual and perfect, to express His goodness, and He keeps us that way. So if we don't feel well, we don't have to put up with bad feelings. We can trust, just as the sick boy's father did, that healing is possible. In fact we can go one step further, following Jesus' example. He knew the son was well right then. So he didn't have to wait a certain amount of time, or even go to the boy, for there to be healing.

How did Jesus know this? How can we know? One line of the Lord's Prayer and Mrs. Eddy's interpretation says:

One of the meanings of that lovely long word "omnipotent" is "all-powerful." No matter how bad things look or feel, God's power is with us now. Our Father-Mother God made us and keeps us whole. When we are sure of that truth (just the way the man in the Bible story was sure Jesus could heal his son), then we also can see and feel God's healing power.