The summer I was fifteen years old, I became very ill, eventually losing the use of my legs. My father, who was not a Christian Scientist, insisted that I be taken to a hospital. When I arrived there, a tube was put in my trachea and I was placed in an iron lung because my lungs were paralyzed as well as my legs. The doctor said it was the worst case of polio Los Angeles General Hospital had seen that year, and gave my parents little hope that I would survive the night.

I don't recall that any medication was given, but I do remember that I held to a verse from the Bible: "In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28). I also prayed using the words of a hymn that starts "In atmosphere of Love divine,/ We live, and move, and breathe" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 144).

Afterward my mother told me that she spent the whole night in prayer, too, praying especially with the Lord's Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation from Science and Health. She concentrated on the meaning of each word. Toward morning this part of another hymn came to her: "And understanding prayer is fully answered,/ When trustingly we turn to God aright" (No. 426). With that message she gained peace. When my parents went back to the hospital, the doctor gave them the high sign, indicating that I had made it through. Later he told them that he wished everyone had what we had, because it certainly did work, and all the doctors could do was wait and hope.

I was at the hospital for a week and a half, and then I was taken to a convalescent hospital, where I remained in the iron lung for another three weeks. You must understand that at that time the predictions were that I could be paralyzed for the rest of my life and, at the very least, that every time I so much as got a cold I would have to be put back into the lung. Happily, no one ever told me that, and I was never afraid. I had no expectation except that I would be healed. I knew that the condition had nothing to do with me as God's child.

After I was removed from the iron lung, doctors came to see me many times a day, talking among themselves about my amazing progress. They called me "the miracle girl." Five and a half weeks after I first entered the hospital, I went home. I started school on time, and you can imagine how my parents felt when I danced in a school concert the next fall. This has always been a landmark healing for me, and I am more grateful than I can say to God, Mary Baker Eddy, and Christian Science.

In subsequent years I have had many other healings. For example, when I was a kindergarten teacher, I woke one morning with all the time-honored symptoms of a cold. There was a moment of fear and disgust, because I didn't welcome a long period of being under the weather. But that reaction didn't last long, because I realized I could do something about the cold. I had the right and the ability to be free!

As I got ready to go to school, I kept my thought close to God. I knew that no fear of contagion could have any effect on me if I refused to give it my consent. I continued praying this way as I drove the twenty minutes to school, contradicting with conviction each suggestion of illness as it presented itself and knowing that God was maintaining me in perfect condition and nothing could keep me from proving that. When I got to school and walked into my classroom, I was completely free! The symptoms were gone and they didn't return. I was so grateful for the understanding of God that enabled me to feel that I didn't have to submit to the claims of disease.

At one time I had severely sprained my ankle when I stepped off a curb. I had been examined by a doctor and was laid up for some time, even walking with crutches for a while. A few years later I again twisted the ankle. This time, however, I dealt with the situation through prayer. I called a Christian Science practitioner, who lovingly reminded me that I could never fall out of God's firm, tender care, and that my history is spiritual, including no repetition of injury or weakness.

We were scheduled to fly to California the next morning to attend a wedding. I was rather wakeful during the night, but I kept holding to the thought of my inseparability from God, in whom no accident can ever occur. In the morning I woke and sprang out of bed with my thought filled with Mrs. Eddy's words "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. vii). And indeed it was. We went to the wedding and I walked many blocks to the church, stood, and even danced at the reception. It was a wonderful and unforgettable day!

I have had remarkable experiences of God's direction in work-related problems, and total protection in automobile accidents and when a pan of hot grease exploded over me. Being a Christian Scientist is a heavenly adventure. I am always grateful to the family member who was healed of cancer decades ago and brought the family to Christian Science with her.

Judith McPhee Fries
Indianapolis, Indiana