A healing I had some years ago came to thought recently, and I’d like to share what I learned from the experience. A few years after I had class instruction in Christian Science, I was challenged with what seemed like severe congestion, a cough, and fever. It seemed serious enough that it kept me in bed, feeling weak and unable to eat much or to keep up with my active life as a young mother, musician, and teacher. 

It seemed hard to keep my thought focused, and, instead of feeling inspiration, my prayer felt more like just repeating words. One night when I couldn’t sleep, it came to me to think of just one fact that I knew was true about God’s creation and to hold to that. Well, I could easily grasp that God, who is our all-loving Father, certainly did not create this illness. I just held to that simple truth, which was so powerful. God, who is all-present Love itself, could not create or even know about disease. 

As I stayed with that thought, I began to reason out from there and the idea grew. If God did not create disease, what did He create? Since He is infinite good, then He could create only that which is good. Since He is Love, He was caring for me. Since He is Life, He was giving me strength and health. Since He is Spirit, I am completely spiritual in His likeness, as we learn in the first chapter of Genesis: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (verse 26). Mary Baker Eddy’s statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was also so helpful, and I earnestly endeavored to follow it: “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts” (p. 261).

My Christian Science teacher was on a lecture tour at the time, and, although it was in the middle of the night, the thought came to me to see where he was lecturing the next day. I was quite sure he was in Southern California, not anywhere near Northern California, where we live. But it kept coming to me over and over again to find out where his lecture was. It turned out it was in a small town that I didn’t know, just a little over an hour from home.

From a human standpoint it didn’t seem wise that I should drive even that distance, so I just prayed with all my heart, “Thy will be done,” repeatedly until I finally went to sleep that night. The next morning I was able to get up for the first time in several days to make breakfast for our family and drive the carpool to our children’s school. I stayed close to God’s will all day. By dinner time I felt strong enough to make the drive and was so happy. 

I got to the church early, and the organist was playing a hymn with the words “Be firm and be faithful; desert not the right” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 18), which was so encouraging to me. Actually she played it continuously before the lecture, and it strengthened me with each repetition. The coughing stopped by the time the lecture began, and the ideas shared during the lecture were so inspiring that by the time it was over I knew I was mentally free. Within a couple of days the healing was complete.

I will always be grateful for this healing and for the lessons it continues to teach me. First, we don’t need to understand all of Christian Science at once—but just holding to even one truth helps us expand our understanding as to what we need. Second, when we listen to God, He gives us beautiful guidance. And third, when we commit to following His will, we can be certain of healing and lasting blessings. 

Alexandra Hawley 
Atherton, California, US