This past winter, I was making a large pot of gumbo. As I had just made the base, or roux, which takes 45 minutes to an hour, the pot and metal spoon I was using were very hot. When I began adding the remaining ingredients, I inadvertently held my thumb against the hot spoon for a few seconds, burning it, and a blister began to develop. 

In that moment, I started to pray, realizing that I needed to fill my thoughts with how my Father-Mother God knows me. The first chapter of Genesis states that God created man in His image and likeness, and that God saw all that He created “and, behold, it was very good” (verses 26, 31). I affirmed that this was an accurate description of my spiritual identity as the child of God, Spirit. 

In doing so, I rejected the false concept that man is material, susceptible to injury or accident, or is ever out of God’s tender care. As a spiritual idea, I could not be touched by any false material belief about God or His creation.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives a universal and “scientific statement of being” on page 468 of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. There it states clearly: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” 

I was grateful in that moment to be able to lean on God’s allness, His love for me, and to recognize the real nature of my spiritual identity. The pain that accompanied the burn significantly diminished. 

Just as this relief came, a word popped into my thought: lambaste. I quickly finished what I was doing in the kitchen and went up to my office to study the word’s definition. The dictionary I was using defines lambaste as “to criticize (someone or something) very harshly, to assault violently, to attack verbally ….” 

Two things occurred to me when reading this definition. The first was the presidential election primaries that were in full swing in the United States. There had been a great deal of criticism among the candidates, which was constantly repeated by the news media. The second was that just prior to burning my thumb, I had been feeling grumpy with my sweet husband, and had been harboring thoughts of criticism toward him about some small situation. 

Immediately, I realized that these two examples involved misconceptions of God’s creation and I had to correct my thinking. God is the only creator, and man—the generic name for the sons and daughters of God—is God’s creation. And instead of affirming that “all is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation,” I had allowed my thoughts to be occupied with the mistaken belief that there were several little minds, which could criticize and be unkind to each other. 

But, since God is infinite, and His manifestation is infinite, there is no room for mistakes, criticism, or anything ungodlike or unloving to exist. I couldn’t affirm my true identity as the spiritual child of God, while not affirming and seeing that truth about another. So I corrected my thinking and redirected my prayers to affirm the truth of one Mind governing man.

Praying in this way also gave me a wonderful sense of freedom from some feelings of burden and pressure I had felt while making dinner. There was no further sense of “blistering” anger or heated frustration left in my thought. Consequently, the blister and remaining pain in my thumb quickly and completely disappeared, and my husband and I enjoyed a joyful (and delicious!) dinner. 

A little while later a little dry skin sloughed off naturally; that was the last of the problem. In fact, the next day I got a manicure, and the nail technician didn’t notice anything abnormal about my thumb. Christian Science had healed me.

I’m so grateful for this tender lesson and its accompanying healing, and for the countless other healings I’ve experienced through following the teachings of Christ Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy, as explained and illuminated through Christian Science.

Allison Rose-Sonnesyn 
Washington, DC, US