I would like to give thanks for a beautiful healing that occurred...

Kathleen J. Wiegand

I would like to give thanks for a beautiful healing that occurred over a year ago.

I was stringing Christmas lights on a holly bush at home. One of the branches was bent backward by a strand of lights. When I freed the branch it whipped violently and very forcefully hit me in the face, deeply embedding one of the thorny leaves in my eye.

As carefully as I could, I removed the sharp leaf. The pain was so intense, I felt as though I would faint. But instead I shouted aloud, "No!" I was really seizing the fact that harmony was all that was going on there. I'm so grateful Mary Baker Eddy included in our church services each week "the scientific statement of being" from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. As I was struggling with the pain, which threatened to overwhelm me, this wonderful statement came clearly to me. I repeated it again and again. It begins: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all" (p. 468). As the spiritual import of this became crystallized in my thinking, the pain and nausea ceased. At this point, there was no vision in the eye, however, only light perception. I went indoors to wash the eye with water to be certain there was no dirt in it.

I realized I had some ghosts of the past to deal with. Before becoming a student of Christian Science, I had worked for about ten years for a group of ophthalmologists. So I was familiar with eye trauma. The appearance of the eye was alarming, but I realized this was an opportunity to ascend higher in my understanding of spiritual being. Through study and growth in Christian Science I was being shown a wholly different picture of man. I had learned that man is not so many body parts that get assembled to make a machine. Man is image; he is expression. Of what? Of God, the one perfect One! I had learned that man embodies all right ideas, and because man (you and I) exists in the Mind that is God, he is wholly spiritual.

Praying alone these lines, I was able to put down the temptation to be fearful or to seek a material remedy instead of casting my cares upon God. I did wear sunglasses for the next few days because the eye would tear profusely when exposed to light.

Mrs. Eddy's poem "The Mother's Evening Prayer" (Poems, p. 4) brought great comfort and relief. The second verse was especially healing during this time. It reads,

Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.

I sought refuge in divine Love, allowing the tender embrace of God's protecting arms to shield me from fear, doubt, and pain. Daily this poem brought its healing message to me, and I knew God's angels were ever ministering to me.

This incident happened on a Thursday night, and by the following Sunday morning I was able to perform my assigned duties at church without any evidence of injury and with perfect vision.

How grateful I am to our Father for His great love for us; to Christ Jesus for his perfect example; and to Mrs. Eddy for sharing with the world the message of the Comforter.

Kathleen J. Wiegand
O'Fallon, Missouri

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