Burns quickly healed

In Australia, TV cooking programs are immensely popular. Many viewers like to watch professional chefs and contestants display their culinary expertise on shows such as MasterChef. Audiences get to see the competitors experience dramatic successes and failures as well as tears and sometimes even a cooking injury or two along the way.

While the dishes look and no doubt taste amazing, they’ve never prompted me to advance beyond basic skills in the kitchen. I’m happy, however, to cook my favorite meals, as I was doing one particular Friday night.

My special pasta dish was on the menu. The water with the pasta shells in it had just finished boiling in the microwave, so I carefully removed the container and carried it to the sink to pour off. Somehow, during the pouring the boiling water splashed on the inside of my left wrist. I didn’t feel any pain, and I happily carried on.

A few minutes later, as I was cleaning up, this thought suddenly came to me: “You know, you’ve just tipped boiling water over your wrist. Shouldn’t you feel something?” Immediately, a rush of pain overwhelmed me, and I noticed a red burn mark on my wrist. 

Picking up a nearby tea towel, I covered the burn and sat down at the kitchen table to pray. I recalled something Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, ‘I am hurt!’ Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real” (p. 397). I quickly realized that I had just proved this to be true, and that in order to be healed I had to address the thought that I had been injured. But how?

The answer was on that same page: “Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be.”  

This explained to me where to begin in my prayers. In reversing the thoughts of injury, I needed to declare my freedom from hurt. That wasn’t hard to do. Over many years, I’d experienced numerous healings brought about exclusively through prayer as taught in Christian Science. I now had every confidence that no matter what I did in life, God, divine Love, was always looking after me, keeping me harmoniously intact. As God’s dearly loved daughter, I was perfectly preserved by Him at all times. Good effects from this spiritual understanding were sure to follow. 

By this time, my thought was much calmer, and the discomfort was quickly receding. I realized that even if I’d temporarily admitted being injured, I didn’t have to suffer. I could reject thoughts and fears about accidents and depend on Christian Science for healing. The Bible brought me comfort and assurance with this promise of divine help: “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 30:17).

It was so uplifting and reassuring to know that what the Bible was telling me was indeed true. So, I prayerfully excluded all notions of injury and harm from my thinking, and thanked God for His constant, loving presence. I wholeheartedly accepted His tender, powerful care, sincerely believed in it, and rejoiced that it was present right then and there. It wasn’t long before all discomfort ceased. A pleasant and delicious evening meal followed.

A couple of days later, I had to visit the local post office. The woman standing next to me at the counter noticed my uncovered wrist. Introducing herself as a nurse, she commented that I had a third-degree burn. Expressing the hope that I was having it medically attended to, she said that it looked like it was healing nicely. My prayers had indeed been effective.

As I drove back home, I thanked God that His truth and love were always with me, keeping me safe from harm, forever preserving me in good health. As I write this today, there is absolutely no sign on my wrist that any cooking mishap ever took place. What’s more, I continue to fearlessly and successfully cook pasta and many other dishes, free from accident or injury.

Beverly Goldsmith
Point Cook, Victoria, Australia