Testimony of Healing January 14, 2019 Issue

Young child’s earache healed

Charlotte Whitby

When my daughter was little, one afternoon I noticed she was frequently touching one ear. Although she was happy enough, I worried that it was a mild ear infection. By dinner the earache was worse. My little girl was on my bed, and I tried to comfort her as best I could. I hated seeing her in pain, and wanted the pain to go away immediately.

This was taking place at a time when I had recently returned to Christian Science after having left it for some years. As a child, I’d had several fast healings of painful earaches through Christian Science treatment; one more earache in college was healed promptly and decisively after I called a Christian Science practitioner, and that was the end of earaches for me. But now I questioned if my prayers were effective enough to heal my daughter quickly in this situation. I briefly considered taking her to a medical clinic, but I knew it would take some time to drive there and wait for help. I wanted her to be comforted now, and from my own experience I knew Christian Science could provide the immediate help that was needed.

Just then I recalled a testimony about a child recorded in the chapter “Fruitage” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The child’s worried mother felt the situation was urgent; despite her fear, when she prayed, and then read aloud from Science and Health, her child was quickly healed (see “A Helpful Healing,” pp. 619–620). This reassured me that God is near, and does help us. It also reminded me of a phrase in Science and Health that says God is “equal to every emergency” (p. 406).