Healing in the face of helplessness

Marguerite A. Coffin

One morning several years ago, one of my hands began to show signs of what I believed to be Parkinson's disease. This was a disease that had afflicted my grandmother all her later years.

Knowing that the first step in healing through Christian Science is to eradicate fear, I recalled as many facts about God as I could, refusing to outline the worst that might happen—at which time the trembling stopped completely. But the following morning, it started once more.

At first I felt helpless, because I didn't think that I or anyone else could heal me.

But I did know that God could. So I reached out for spiritual truths, aware that any of these truths could bring healing. What came to mind was one short phrase: "perfection of being" (see Science and Health, p. 253). I thought many times about the truth that God made everything perfect, which is evident in these statements from the Bible's book of Genesis: "God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1:27) and, "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31).

I wondered whether this was doing any good, and had no idea what else to think or do (as the evidence of disability kept on)—until finally, one word came to thought: established. My hand became perfectly normal at that moment. I had never known such awe at God's healing power before.

I recalled as many facts about God as I could.

Later that evening, though, I began to feel that I was not fully healed. I immediately asked God what I needed to understand better. The idea of "permanence" came to me—that the good established by God for His creation is permanent and never wavers. And I prayed by remembering other facts about God that related to my own situation. My hands have worked perfectly ever since that time, at least four or five years ago now. I rejoice every time I recall the power of God to heal me completely.

Marguerite A. Coffin
Tualatin, Oregon

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