In late summer of 2006, my brother and I drove to his daughter's home to remove and rebuild a screen porch. At one point, after we'd begun the reconstruction work, my brother was attempting to attach a 12-foot rafter to a corner post I was holding in place. Suddenly the rafter slipped and swung into my face, hitting me squarely on the mouth.

Stunned, I immediately placed my gloved hand over my lips, and, reassuring my brother that I just needed to be quiet for a moment, I left the work site to pray. This was a natural response, as I'd had a number of other healing experiences resulting from turning to God in the way that Christian Science teaches.

My brother, who is also a Christian Scientist, had immediately expressed apologies and concern, but I held no thought of anger or blame toward him. I knew that he, too, would be prayerfully supporting me. My nephew, who was helping us, brought me some paper towels to clean my face, which was bleeding.

As I sat on the front steps of the house, the first thought that came to me was of the fact that there are no accidents in divine Mind, or God—which is based on a passage in Science and Health that states, "... 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).

At that moment, this truth was an affirmation for me of God's complete control of all His creation—including me. Because of this fact, I realized I could never be separated from His love. I knew that calamities, mishaps, injuries, are not caused by God, and therefore, in reality, it's impossible to suffer from any such circumstance. I saw that any apparent harmful effects would be corrected the more I understood that the harmony maintained by God can't be intruded upon or compromised; that His allness assures our perpetual soundness and safety.

I also thought of a poem by Mary Baker Eddy titled "Mother's Evening Prayer." Several phrases from this poem, which is also a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal, comforted me greatly, especially, "His [God's] arm encircles me ...; "... fear no ill,—since God is good ..." and "'Lo, I am with you alway'" (No. 207).These wonderful truths enabled me to remain calm and receptive to healing. Above all, I felt surrounded by God's love and knew that I could absolutely trust in His care.

Within about half an hour, the bleeding stopped. I didn't make any effort to look at myself in a mirror, and although I could tell that the area around my mouth was swollen, none of my teeth appeared loose or damaged. I also felt no pain. I was so grateful for this progress, and that from the outset, the spiritual facts that had come to my rescue were keeping me from panicking.

For the next two hours, I continued to pray, while my brother and nephew completed the work on the house. I filled my thoughts with an expectation of healing, knowing that the situation would be resolved quickly through the action of God's unchangeable law of good governing me and everyone. As I identified myself as His idea, not physical but spiritual, my prayers weren't about trying to make damaged matter into well matter, but were about affirming my present wholeness.

Later that day, after I arrived home, I again washed the wound on my mouth, and continued to be grateful for the evidence of the power of prayer. The swelling had subsided to a large extent, and there was never any pain. Over the next couple of days, all evidence of an injury completely disappeared.

PAUL MURRAY
NEWARK, DELAWARE, US