I had been working solidly through Thanksgiving weekend and early December to finish illustrations for a children’s book. With a looming deadline and feeling unprepared for the holidays, I suddenly felt I was coming down with the aggressive symptoms of a flu virus. I reached out to a Christian Science practitioner for help in praying for healing. I couldn’t let this illness affect our young family or my contract with the publisher.

The practitioner’s powerful words have been a beacon to me ever since. Referring to King Herod’s determination to kill the infant Jesus, she said, “Let’s not let any ‘Herod thought’ make a virus out of hatred of the Christ.” As I understood it, she was challenging the negativity—commercialism, strained family relations, lack, excess, or any other stressful influence—that would interfere with the sacred meaning of Christmas. 

This lifted my thought above a limited, material sense regarding how my body felt into a larger, spiritual view of Christmas and the spiritual nature of my work for children. The symptoms stopped instantly. The energy I needed to care for my family, finish the work on time, and spread holiday joy returned and stayed with me for the rest of the season.