Testimony of Healing March 4, 2002 Issue

God always present—even in combat

George B. Addison

During World War II, my sister's husband and I went into the US Marines. I saw no combat during that war, but my brother-in-law did. On the island of Pelieliu, he led his platoon against a hill and got a bullet through the knee. He didn't know that prayer could help him in spite of the medical verdict, and they amputated his left leg.

Years later during the Korean War, I served in the same Marine unit that my brother-in-law had been in. On one occasion, I, too, led an assault on a hill and took a bullet through my left knee. I was carried to a field hospital, then evacuated to a hospital in the rear where it was quieter and I could find a little privacy. I had a pocket-size Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy in my pack, and I started studying them diligently and praying for myself.

The doctors' diagnosis was the same as it had been for my brother-in-law, and at first I was afraid I'd lose my leg, too. I don't recall now exactly what I read in those two books, but I knew I had to face my fear head-on. I knew that God controlled everything, that His law was perfectly good, and that He governed me and could cause only harmony.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

She came back to the practice of Christian Science