Article June 14, 2010 Issue

A red string, God's love, and healing

BY APRIL MATTSON

I tried pressing my fingers apart, sitting on them, wearing gloves, and even running cold water over them. Nothing stopped the itching, at least not for long. I was in seventh grade and had a severe case of poison ivy.

"Why don't you walk over to Grandma's," Mom suggested. As a Christian Scientist, I was relying on prayer for healing but hadn't prayed much myself. I expected my parents' prayers to do the job.

Since I'd made only a little progress, I took my mom's advice and went to visit Grandma. My grandmother often helped me and my brother and cousins pray. She lived just down the road from us. When I walked inside, she was sitting in her favorite chair reading Science and Health, a book that explains how Jesus healed through prayer and how we can do the same.