When a friend was healed
I was brought up as a practicing Jew in the south of England. I was educated in the Old Testament, taught the culture and history of Jewish people in Hebrew School, and daily attended a traditional girls’ school where about 99 percent of the students were Protestant Christians.
One rainy day during my high school years, I found myself going to the gymnasium, for I had a free period and no work to catch up on. As I sat there on a bench I saw a girl—whom I knew to be one of the few students from a Jewish background—on the high balance beam.
I continued to question this girl about Christian Science and the prayer that had healed her.
Suddenly, she lost her balance and fell face-first, crashing into the hard wooden floor. I watched in horror as the dazed girl was helped out of the room. Her face was cut and discolored with bruises. Several of those watching examined the spot where she fell and found teeth marks indented in the floor.
About one hour later, after my last class, I was going to get my coat and belongings when I saw the girl who had fallen in the gym walking toward me. I did a double-take in astonishment—her face was perfect. There were no signs of an accident at all. I was delighted to see her as her calm and happy self. I blurted out: “What happened? I saw you fall in the gym and I saw them take you out, badly bruised. Didn’t you go to the hospital?”
She answered me, “No, I’m all right.”
“Well, didn’t you have stitches?” I asked. “No, I didn’t,” was her calm reply.
I was intrigued and pressed her again. “Well, how did the swelling and bruises go away?”
“I prayed in the nurse’s office,” was the reply.
“You can’t pray away things like that!” I said in a disbelieving tone, “I saw what happened.”
The girl simply said, “Well, I’m a Christian Scientist and that’s what we do.”
Now I was really baffled, yet I simply had to find out what had happened and what she meant by her explanation. I had never heard of Christian Scientists. Over the next few days, I continued to question this girl about Christian Science and the prayer that had healed her. Her answers made it clear to me that she had very different concepts of prayer and God than I did.
I persisted for about a week in trying to find out how the healing I had witnessed had come about. Eventually, my new friend asked me to come to her Sunday School class and ask questions of her teacher, who was a Christian Science practitioner and healed people daily. I went to the Sunday School and found many answers to my questions. This led me to study Christian Science, and I began to practice it in my daily life. As I quickly proved its efficacy, I studied more until Christian Science teachings became my way of life.
As time went on and I tried to share what I was learning, I found that certain concepts and words from the Bible are interpreted differently in Christian Science than in other religious teachings. Concepts such as prayer, God, Christ, Mind, and Soul were explained by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, in a practical way that I could live by. I tried to explain this to my family and friends, but found they didn’t understand the value I was gaining. Eventually, I felt that I had to separate from my family for a while, until I had consistently proved what I was learning. Later, the antagonism dissipated and family ties were reunited.
As I went out into the world, worked, married, and raised a family, I proved the value of Christian Science and found many opportunities to share the concepts taught in Eddy’s unique writings, which opened up the Scriptures for me. Her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is certainly one of my most precious possessions. It holds the answers for anyone who might be experiencing challenging situations. These revelations have proved to be effective translations of spiritual concepts, as they are provable truths that heal.
[Read "The healing from my perspective"]
