Prayer brings quick healing of fever

In the summer of 2003, I worked as a camp counselor in Colorado. The summer was going by beautifully. I was totally into my activities—one of which was teaching horseback riding—and the campers were great. I was also finding daily opportunities to grow in my understanding and practice of Christian Science.

One morning, shortly after arriving at the corral at around 5:30 a.m., I suddenly felt very feverish. Soon I was not able to move at all without intense discomfort. After resting for a short time, I eventually felt strong enough to walk back to the camp's care facility.

Once I'd reached the facility, the symptoms quickly intensified. The facility coordinator immediately called a Christian Science practitioner to help me through prayer, and after talking with her, I was settled into a room to rest. While lying there, I found myself regretting that I had to be sick. I felt guilty because I had promised to help a good friend in her soccer program that day, and I had already bailed on her once before. It looked as if I was going to have to bail on her again. I didn't think that it was fair to my friend or me, because I had really been looking forward to helping her out. These feelings were distracting me from turning wholeheartedly to God to find healing through prayer.

After a short time, the friend I had intended to help heard where I was, and came to visit me. I immediately confessed how bad I felt about letting her down, and for the second time! She assured me that she'd be able to manage, and that she wasn't upset with me at all. She then pulled out a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy and read to me this statement: "... the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testimony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; andthus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic" (p. 120). My friend left the book by my side, open to this passage, as she left to start the morning's activities.

As I lay there in the peace and quiet of the room, I found that statement really setting my thoughts in motion. I considered each part of the passage, and began to reason along these lines: The truth that there is one absolute, universal law which applies to everyone nullifies the belief that I, or anyone, could experience any condition outside of God's control. This "divine Principle," absolute in its government, has the power to reverse "the testimony of the physical senses"—to dissolve the illusion that the illness I am experiencing has any substance whatsoever. The fact that God is the only power denies the power of disease.

This prayer revealed to me that my health was not subject to anything material. I didn't need to worry about the type of disease, its symptoms, or the course it would run, because my health was always grounded in God—stable, unchanging, spiritual, eternal.

Greatly comforted by the healing power of these ideas that I was contemplating, I found the symptoms disappearing almost as quickly as they had come. I fell asleep briefly, and a short time later got up in time to join my friend at the soccer field. I spent the rest of the day in complete joy and freedom. None of my campers even knew that I'd been ill earlier that morning. The healing was so quick that it remains to me wonderful example of the power of understanding divine law.

Laura Hill
Tustin, California