Testimony of Healing November 27, 1995 Issue

One can only feel great gratitude for a healing in Christian Science...

John Washer

One can only feel great gratitude for a healing in Christian Science—gratitude to God for His revelation as discovered by Mary Baker Eddy. Over many years I have studied Christian Science and depended on it for guidance and healing. Once, I was lost on a mountain range in New Zealand. Several tracks down seemed possible. Listening in prayer for God's guidance, I heard one way that seemed right, though not the most obvious. This brought me out to a recognised spot. Any other way could have been disastrous, I learned later.

My latest healing took some little time, and the discerning prayer of a Christian Science practitioner. Several of my friends had had hip replacement operations. Christian Science teaches that sickness cannot come from God, who is all-power. Instead of praying as I had learned, to deny reality to that which is discordant and diseased, and acknowledging in place of it God's omnipotence, I accepted hip disease as a reality for man. Then I began to manifest symptoms similar to those of my friends. When there was considerable pain and inconvenience, and long walks became impossible for me, the condition became obvious to friends, who recommended an operation.

The first lines of the description of man in Science and Health were very helpful: "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God" (p. 475). So was this from the Bible: "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" (I Cor. 6:15) These passages helped me to lift my thought to see myself as spiritual—not subject to debilitation or displacement.