Pet healings strengthen faith
I have always loved animals—the beauty, joy, and love they so naturally express. I’ve been grateful to learn through Christian Science that these wonderful qualities have their source in God—that animals as well as people are spiritual and exist to express God’s nature. Knowing this has been a blessing in caring for our family pets. We’re seeing glimpses that “all of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 514 ).
One of our dogs had two healings that taught me a lot about applying Christian Science. Our neighbors told me that their young dog had been put to sleep because it developed hip dysplasia. I knew that this condition frequently affected the breed of dog we had. After being away on a trip, I returned to find that our dog was in pain and would not walk. When I looked into her eyes, I saw fear. It was almost as if she were saying she was afraid we would not keep her because she could not walk. I had compassion for her, and I was sure that the suffering was a mental imposition that would melt away in the presence of divine Love. Divine Love can do what a personal sense of love and the material senses can’t—perceive the unchanged spiritual wholeness of each individual person or pet.
Each day I gently carried our dog outside, stood her up, and spoke to her about her perfection as God’s creature. I told her that because divine Spirit is the source of all movement, she could walk, and I encouraged her to try. I endeavored to understand more fully that because she was spiritual, her ability to express unhindered love and joy had not been lost. After some days, she began tentatively to take a few steps. At the end of several weeks, she completely regained her ability to walk and run, and she continued for many years being an active member of the family.
At another time, a neighbor called to tell me that several dogs in the neighborhood had contracted a contagious disease that was threatening their lives. She warned me to keep my dog inside and described the symptoms in detail. After this conversation, I spent some time embracing the entire neighborhood in the truth that no contagion exists because divine Love never created evil or made it communicable. I love the statement in Science and Health: “The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man” (p. 284 ).
Later that day, our dog began to have the symptoms described. Since I had already prayed, I was not afraid, but continued to trust that it was impossible for our family to be influenced by fear when we understood that there is only one creation and that it is all good. I firmly refused to believe that our dog was sick. In a short time the symptoms stopped, and she resumed her normal activities.
Recently our cat had a healing that has inspired me to practice truth more consistently. This cat came into our family when we moved into our home 20 years ago, and he has taught us a lot. He consistently expresses calmness and a good-natured desire to interact with everyone, including other cats and dogs. One of our dogs liked to chase and play with this cat, and he always responded with warm friendliness.
Last fall, the cat’s neck became infected. A wound opened, and the cat stopped eating or drinking. After some days, he had lost a lot of weight, and it appeared that he could not go on much longer. I tried to make him comfortable but was very sad about losing him. Then one day as I looked at him, a strong thought came to me: “What are you doing? You are believing in death. You know better than that! You know that you are to resist the temptation to believe that there is any life separate from God.”
At that moment, I decided to stop believing this image of mortality. I asked God how I could help the cat through prayer. The idea came to me that although the cat was always good-natured about living around dogs, being chased by much larger creatures could be fearful for him. In prayer, I held to the idea that no one in God’s creation has ever been a victim or a victimizer. In spiritual reality, no one has scars or wounds from what someone else has said or done. St. Paul said of God, “In him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28 ). We live in the kingdom of God, where there is compatibility, safety, and harmlessness.
Soon an idea came as to how to feed the cat some liquid, and he was able to raise his head and take a drink. For some days, he drank a little more each day until he began to eat solid food. Now, seven months later, his neck has healed, his weight has filled out, and he is an active member of the family once again. His attitude toward our big Labrador retriever and standard poodle amazes me. He is always so happy to see them, rubs up against them, and loves to lie near them.
These healings have strengthened my faith that in reality all creation is, here and now, the expression of divine Life and Love. It has been a joy to experience Christian Science healing with our pets.
Carla Stillman
Clarendon Hills, Illinois, US
