Testimony of Healing December 8, 1997 Issue

When my daughter was twelve years old, she ran away from...

Caroline Sellar Dunlap

When my daughter was twelve years old, she ran away from home. She had become friendly with a girl who lived not far away from us. This friend had a history of running away. The two girls left one Friday evening in October, ostensibly to attend a social event; but really they began hitchhiking. About two hours later the friend's mother called me to alert me that she had reason to suspect the girls were running away. I made two telephone calls, one to the sheriff's office, the other to a Christian Science practitioner for treatment through prayer.

I felt deep grief that my precious daughter had taken such an extreme and dangerous step. I felt I might never see her again. I blamed myself for her difficult and painful childhood, which included divorce and abandonment by a father who had abused her. I was intensely afraid of what could happen to her, and terrible imaginings tormented me. However, the practitioner prayed faithfully and reasoned with me spiritually each time fear seemed to be getting the better of me. Gradually, I began to turn my thoughts away from mortal mind's accusing, excusing, analyzing, and blaming and to sense God's presence and care. Each time aggressive fears tried to impose themselves on me, I would claim God as my Mind and my daughter's Mind. I could see that because there is only one Mind, God, this Mind is the Mind of everyone involved—including the other girl, any motorists who might pick them up, and police who were looking for them. After a while I wasn't just claiming that there is one Mind; I understood that I was in it and so was my daughter. I saw that we had never really lived anywhere else. We eternally belong to God.

On the fifth day after the girls left, my younger daughter came to me and handed me a slip of paper she had just found in the bedroom that she and her sister shared. On it was penciled an address in California. I immediately reported this to our local sheriff, who, in turn, made contact with authorities in California. On the seventh day, less than an hour after she arrived at this address, the police in California picked up my daughter and took her to a shelter. Later, when my daughter was home again, she told me how relieved she had been to be found. When the sheriff called to tell me my daughter was safe, he said, "Somebody up there must really love you. I don't usually get to give parents such happy news in cases like these." I told him we had prayed continuously for her, and he said, "I believe it."

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