For several days I had been suffering with a severe sore throat that continued to worsen. A Christian Science practitioner was praying for me, and my husband kept him updated, because it was hard for me to talk. 

Early one evening as I sat on the couch (feeling sorry for myself, as I recall), the doorbell rang. It was a neighbor child who was my young daughter’s friend. My daughter had told her about my illness, and the little girl told her parents, who were pastors of a local Protestant church. The parents asked their daughter to bring me a recording of their favorite hymns. I decided to listen with earphones so I could turn the volume up louder than the pain.

As I listened, I was struck by the beauty of the melodies and the lyrics. I felt that these singers must know God—that no one could sing with such heart unless they knew God as Love. After all, the author of First John wrote, “God is love” (4:8). At that point my primary motive for praying changed from wanting to be healed to wanting to take a stand for the God that I knew as good, caring, and powerful. For the first time in days, I was not impressed by the pain. Instead, I felt peace of mind.

I went to bed and fell right to sleep. In the middle of the night I was awakened by a sense of divine Love’s presence. I was surrounded by it, and it felt like mothering love. This Love was so gentle that I smiled and smiled, thinking of the opening line of Mary Baker Eddy’s poem “Mother’s Evening Prayer”: “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power” (Poems, p. 4).

I got out of bed to look out the window. Everything I saw seemed to reflect divine Love—the tall tree in the neighbor’s yard, the moonlit sky, even the driveway. Nothing seemed material or inanimate. Everything spoke to me as being spiritual. Love was everywhere. 

This was such an awakening that I thought, “This must mean I am healed!” When I swallowed, the pain was as strong as ever, but compared to the sense of divine Love I was experiencing, it was puny. I remember saying to the pain, “Oh, you poor thing, trying so hard to be real.” I knew it couldn’t be real because God, who is totally good, never made pain, disease, or any other evil. A little while later I fell back to sleep. When I awoke in the morning, the pain had lost its edge, and a short while later it completely disappeared.

This unforgettable experience happened more than forty years ago, when I was in my early years as a student of Christian Science. Since then I have had other significant healings, some with the prayerful help of a Christian Science practitioner. Some healings were quick, and others came step by step as I grew in spiritual understanding. But I feel confident that whatever inspiration we need in order to overcome the false impressions of evil, divine Love will provide. In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy states, “Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love—be it song, sermon, or Science—blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty” (p. 234). We can count on Love!

Holly Suhi
Temecula, California, US