Article September 8, 2003 Issue

Can't I hide under a bushel? ... Please?!

Sara Hoagland Hunter

When I was in about the fourth grade , I took a major wipeout on a bike twice my size, right in front of some of my mom's most fearful friends. Mom scooped me up in her arms and drove me home, singing hymns. Although she said nothing at the time, she later admitted that her initial prayerful pleadings had been along the lines of, "Gee, God, why did this have to happen in front of all those people?"

I remember well the healing that followed. The deep laceration on my leg healed quickly through prayer, and many people in our small town were witnesses to the healing. My mother and I learned together that spiritual healing is never hindered by the fact that people might be looking on to see what happens. That's because human opinions are powerless to change what God knows about us and does for us. Mom's prayer of "Why here ... why now?" turned rapidly to a prayer of gratitude to God, and thanks that others were able to see the effect of prayer-based treatment.

This lesson learned at a young age has often helped me in raising and caring for my children. Although it would seem ideal to be able to deal with our problems in isolation, it just doesn't always work that way. To borrow a phrase from the Bible, we can't hide our candle under a bushel—even if we think we'd like to. Time and time again, I've seen the truth in a statement Mary Baker Eddy made in her textbook on Christian healing, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love [God] can make an angel entertained unawares" (p. 574).