'An expected end'
I was washing my hands at the sink in the restroom when I heard the commotion behind me.
I turned around to see a woman, obviously ill, bending over the bathroom trash container. Several other women went to her aid, but she urged them to leave, saying she would be all right. The other women left the room as she bent over the trash again.
I stepped away from the sink and went over to stand by her. After a moment, she raised herself up and said that I should leave her, too, but I told her that I would stay. She bent down again, but this time no adverse sounds came from her. In another moment, she stood up and looked me straight in the eye. “You were praying for me, weren’t you?” she asked.
I hesitated. I hadn’t been giving her a Christian Science treatment; in that moment I had simply been trying to love the woman, to see her as God sees her. Did that mean I was praying for her? Then I realized that regardless of how I defined what I had been doing, she was looking for a simple answer. “Yes,” I responded, “I was praying for you.”
The woman said she knew it had to be prayer, because one minute, she felt terrible, and then the next, she suddenly felt fine. And indeed her appearance had completely changed. She said she couldn’t account for the sudden change, but then it struck her—it had to be the result of prayer.
She searched my face intensely for a second or two. I listened to God for what I might say to her, but there was really no need to say anything; she accepted what had just happened. She smiled at me, cleaned up a little, headed to the door, and held it open for me. We walked out together into the restaurant in silence, she heading for her table of friends and I heading toward my husband, who had been waiting for me at the door.
“You were praying for me, weren’t you?” she asked.
As we headed out, I told my husband, “You won’t believe what just happened.” I recounted the event, to which my husband replied, “Of course I believe it. Isn’t healing what’s supposed to happen all the time?” He chided me a little for not expecting this result and for, in effect, judging what had happened as miraculous. I reminded him that I didn’t think I’d really done anything. I hadn’t given this woman a Christian Science treatment and I didn’t even remember thinking about any specific ideas from the Bible or Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. I’d simply been staying with her, trying to be receptive to God’s direction and ready to help in any way I could. My husband laughed and said, “Well, that’s it, isn’t it? Love healed her!”
Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, gives very clear, concise instructions on how to give a treatment to someone who has asked for prayerful help (see Science and Health, pp. 410–412 ). But what about those who have not asked for specific Christian Science treatment? This experience showed me that love is the appropriate response in any situation. The Bible tells us that “God is love” (I John 4:16 ). Isn’t God, Love, always the healer? As we reflect God, divine Love, we recognize His presence—and this recognition brings grace and truth to any situation. Like a light illuminating a room, it chases away the darkness of sin, sickness, and even death. The result is quick, clear, instantaneous healing.
I later realized that I had been prepared to heal in that situation. I was well aware that God created men and women perfect, and that we remain so eternally. I knew that God is always present. And the woman who was healed was also receptive to these truths. In a way, both she and I were carrying these truths with us, and they sustained us in a moment of need.
The book of Jeremiah says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (29:11 ). Healing is the ending I should have expected! After all, it’s what God expects.
