Testimony of Healing April 20, 1998 Issue

Recurring nightmare ended; painless childbirth

Ingrid H. Peters

While I was in high school, I was introduced to Christian Science by the young man I later married. My first healing of lasting import was that of a recurring dream of wild horses galloping menacingly toward me while my efforts for escape seemed hopeless. The statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy "God never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams" (p. 249) stayed in my thought. When the dream next occurred, instead of attempting to run, I stood firm and faced the erroneous picture, which receded until it disappeared. The dream has never recurred since.

The young man and I married, and, after seventeen years of marriage, I experienced my first and only pregnancy. During the time that we were prayerfully preparing for the child's arrival, I recalled a visit to my parents' home several years earlier. The apple tree in the backyard had been loaded with fruit—the branches were bowed low, and the bottom limbs, though supported by notched lumber, almost touched the ground. We picked the tree clean of its fruit, and while we were enjoying a lunch on the porch overlooking the garden, I noticed that the limbs of the tree gradually rose to their natural position. This phrase from Science and Health came to mind: "All nature teaches God's love to man ..." (p. 326). God's love is for all; and just as the apple tree could experience no harm, I knew that God's love embraced me and my child.

When the baby was due, I arrived at the hospital, together with my husband and a Christian Science nurse, late in the morning. While I was in the delivery room, the three of us sang hymns and repeated many of the truths from the Bible and from Science and Health. No anesthesia or drugs were administered, and the birth was painless. Three and half hours later I was home with a darling daughter. The Christian Science nurse stayed on for nearly two weeks. During this short time, I experienced a problem—I could not walk. By the time my mother arrived to meet her granddaughter, this problem was healed. This time was a period of spiritual growth and joy for both me and my family. As a footnote, we loved raising our daughter—no teething problems, no broken bones, no major problems of any type.

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