The dusk of a midwestern winter day is just right for a warm fire, and I was about to put on my boots and jacket to go out to chop some firewood. But right before I went outside, I had a clear sense that I needed to stop and devote a few moments to prayer.

People pray in many different ways. I approach prayer as communing with God, mentally letting go of the push of human will and listening for divine direction. The Bible describes man as made in God's image and likeness, and prayer is the active affirmation of the protection, power, and provision we rightly have because our true nature is spiritual. Through such prayer, our thought is aligned more closely with God, with Truth.

After praying along these lines a few minutes, I went out to get the wood ready. Holding a particularly tough log in one hand, I tried to strike the end just hard enough to get the split started. The axhead must have hit a knot, because it veered into my other hand, striking it between the thumb and index finger. While I was startled, my first thought was that I was all right, that I was completely in God's care. The evidence of a severely injured hand seemed very real, but I held fast to the fact that I did not have to accept this as the reality. The claim that an injury could occur was the product of a mentality, wholly false, that proclaims matter as the essence of man. The truth of the situation was that since God, Mind, is Spirit and the source of my being, my true nature must be spiritual and good. I could not, in reality, be the victim of a harmful event.

My wife saw me from the kitchen window, so I knew she also would be affirming my protection from harm. My daughter came out with a towel, which I wrapped around the cut to stop the bleeding. As I sat calmly praying, I was reminded of a healing I had read about in Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. The last hundred and one pages of this book are devoted to testimonies of healing, many quite remarkable, which came about through Christian Science treatment or simply as a result of study of the book.

In one of these accounts of healing, a man states that he was cutting wood in the snow with a circular saw and was hit in the face with a stick. His account continues, "The blood spattered on the snow next the saw table, and on feeling with my hand there were two wounds, one on the lock of the jaw and another forward, as big as a dollar, on the cheek bone." He gave himself Christian Science treatment. He gained relief from a thumping pain, and also saw the bleeding stop and was able to finish the work. Later that night he discovered large lumps on his jaw and the side of his face, and he again turned to God. The healing was so quick and complete that he could say: "I never lost an hour from the hurt, although I found out that my jaw was broken. There is no scar, only a little red spot on the cheek, and the lumps on the bone have long since disappeared" (pp. 674–675).

Although this healing happened many years ago, the spiritual laws that governed the situation are eternal and have power in our experience today. It became clear to me that the praying I had done just prior to chopping had prepared me to handle this accident, and I was grateful for having been alerted to pray. The communication from God comes naturally to us through these spiritual intuitions that evidence His care for us.

After a short time my hand ceased bleeding, and I felt well enough to finish chopping the wood. I went inside, confident that healing was taking place. The restoration of wholeness follows the understanding that man's life is spiritual, not in a material body. While washing and bandaging my hand, I resisted the temptation to be impressed by the wound, which appeared quite deep. It took only a few days for my hand to heal completely.

In the weeks just prior to this experience, I had been studying this particular passage from another of Mrs. Eddy's books, Miscellaneous Writings: "Obeying the divine Principle which you profess to understand and love, demonstrates Truth. Never absent from your post, never off guard, never ill-humored, never unready to work for God,—is obedience; being 'faithful over a few things'" (p. 116).

To be never absent from your post or off guard may be a reference to military sentries, standing guard and protecting other soldiers. The importance of this activity is obvious. If a guard fails to perform his or her duty, the enemy can penetrate and destroy the forces. In the same way it is important for us to stand guard over our consciousness, watching what we allow to enter.

Science and Health states: "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance" (pp. 392–393). Prayer from this watchful basis helps us better prepare ourselves spiritually to keep intruding thoughts out of our consciousness.

How many of us can claim to be "never ill-humored"'? Yet this demand is an important part of being prepared. A temperament that's moody, negative, angry, impatient, is probably not well prepared for success in anything, especially healing. My wife believes that a vital part of the healing of the ax wound was the fact that I did not shout and toss the ax in anger!

Never to be "unready to work for God" requires a vigilance to keep our consciousness spiritually oriented and alert to situations requiring our attention. All day long we may be bombarded—on the schoolyard, at the office, by the media—with arguments that discord and illness are inescapable, active, powerful.

These are the times to be ready to work for God, and that work is healing. We can mentally halt each belief of inharmony right at the point of introduction to consciousness, and deny it entry. This is a defense not only for ourselves but for those we come in contact with as well. Instead of being drawn into affirming the reality of each problem, we can confidently affirm the counterfact, that God is good, omnipotent, and omnipresent—embracing all in His love.

So how can we become more consistent at doing God's work? By preparing our consciousness through prayer. The greatest healer of all, Christ Jesus, listened to God's gentle assurances of His ability to maintain good for His creation, and he understood and proved man's oneness with God. To Jesus, prayer—a never-off-duty communion with God—was crucial in preparation for his great healing works. Just so, sincere prayer helps to keep our thought always on guard, brings calm to our temperament, and ensures that we are prepared to meet our daily challenges and to heal others as well.