Injured arm healed spiritually

Elizabeth Jones Davis

The instructor called out as I prepared to execute my first-ever somersault on the trampoline. My classmates standing around the tramp all shouted encouragement, as I was the first in class to attempt this feat. When I landed, however, one arm crumpled awkwardly under my body. There was immediate pain, and I asked the instructor if I could be excused. She saw my discomfort and granted my request. She knew that I was a Christian Scientist and wanted to be alone to pray.

In the quiet of the locker room, I held tightly to my arm and marched up and down enthusiastically singing hymns. The pain subsided. I was away at college at the time, so I went to the home of my Sunday School teacher, who kindly took care of my needs in a loving atmosphere, fully expecting healing. A Christian Science practitioner was called, and she began praying for me immediately.

In talking to the practitioner, I told her that I hoped the healing would be quick, because I knew my peers and teachers would be worried about me. I was feeling a responsibility to show them that I could be healed through Christian Science.

My arm was just fine. To prove it, I gave her a push-ups demonstration.

I still remember how she reassured me that Christian Science didn't need me to make it true. The fact of God's constant, loving care has been true forever, and will be true forever, Our job is to expect good and to bear witness to the healing Christ. A burden lifted, and my healing proceeded naturally. I felt like a bystander on the sidelines watching God's power at work.

I remember feeling so comforted, knowing I could never be separated from God. I was so grateful for this statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony" (p. 424). This awareness could have only one inevitable result—healing!

I stayed two nights with my Sunday School teacher before going back to the dorm. My gymnastics instructor felt responsible, but I reassured her that my arm was just fine. To prove it, I promptly dropped to the floor and gave her a push-ups demonstration. At that time, I was also very involved with rehearsals for an upcoming synchronized swimming performance. I didn't miss any practice sessions or performances.

I've been so grateful over the years for this first "solo flight" in trusting God for healing. A hymn with words by Mary Baker Eddy that I love very much prays, "Thou Love that guards the nestling's faltering flight!/Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207). This experience has been a great benchmark to lean on during the years of marriage, child-raising, and career that have followed. It showed me that I could prove my oneness with heavenly Father.

Elizabeth Jones Davis
Anacortes, Washington

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Testimony of Healing

Warts eliminated through prayer

October 23, 2000

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