One day around lunchtime my young daughter, Gracie, was very tired and began to feel warm. My husband and I have seen so many healings in our family through prayer, and I immediately began to pray for her. She had been learning in the Christian Science Sunday School that God loves her and all of His children, and that He doesn’t send us sickness. Gracie has always been receptive to hearing that God is good and is always taking care of her. 

In my prayers for my daughter, I persisted in seeing what was spiritually true about her, acknowledging her present perfection and wholeness as God’s reflection. 

I let her rest that afternoon. When she woke up later in the day, she still felt warm. Not wanting the fever to linger, I called a Christian Science practitioner and asked him to support my prayers with Christian Science treatment. He told me he would get right to work praying for her, and immediately calmed my fears by reminding me of God’s love for Gracie, adding that fever was nothing more than fear manifested on the body, and divine Love dispels fear. Once I got off the phone with the practitioner, I saw more clearly that fever, just like fear, is not real because it does not come from God, and it is no part of His child. 

That coming weekend was my annual Christian Science association meeting, so as I was sitting next to my daughter, I thought I’d review my notes from previous meetings and look over our assignment for the year. I realized I was supposed to have read the chapter “Christian Science Practice” in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, but had somehow overlooked this part of the assignment. 

I began to read the chapter as Gracie was sleeping. I was inspired by it. Mrs. Eddy lays out clearly in this chapter that sickness is not real but an illusion of the material senses, and that we must correct the lie that we are sick with the truth—discerned through the spiritual senses—that we are well. 

I especially love the passage on page 365 that says, “If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine.” It was so comforting to feel the presence of this Love and to know that it is what heals. 

I continued reading the chapter as though I had never read it before.

When my daughter woke up, I began reading the chapter to her. We’d had a very busy spring, and just sitting, the two of us together, was quite nice. I cherished these moments of quiet and rest. 

After speaking with the practitioner again that afternoon, I felt divine Love’s embrace of both Gracie and me, and all fear was gone. I knew that God is her life and my life, and that nothing could take away the life God gives us. I wasn’t surprised when, as a result of this shift in my own thought, the fever lessened.

Gracie went to sleep later that night and woke up in the morning her happy, healthy self again.

I was tempted to keep checking Gracie and ask her how she was, but instead expressed my gratitude for her wellness. Later that day I said to her, “Wow, what a beautiful healing you had!” She said, “Mommy, what do you mean?” I said, “You were healed so quickly.” She said, “What do you mean ‘healed’ ”? You said sickness is not real, so I was always well.” And we continued on with our day full of activity. I am so grateful for God’s healing power. 

Nel Shelby
The Bronx, New York, US