TeenConnect: Your Healings
August 24, 2020
Can I really expect a healing?
It was a sunny day—a great day to go outside and play sports all day. Well, that’s what I did—playing basketball, soccer, kickball, and more.
That afternoon one of my older brothers invited me to play soccer with him and his friends. Playing was challenging, because my brother and his friends were bigger, better players than I was, so they could strip the ball off me as soon as I got it. But this just made me even more determined to play as hard as I could.
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I finally got a big break and was heading to score. I shot the ball with my right foot, aiming it straight for the goal. The ball bounced right off the goalie’s knee and flew back at me. I was still mid-run, thinking the ball was going to ricochet off of him, and then maybe I could get a touch off and score an amazing goal, but things didn’t go as planned. Instead, the ball smashed into my left thumb. I felt a jolt of pain. When I glanced down at it, my thumb looked pretty gnarly.
It was hard to imagine how prayer could heal my ugly-looking thumb.
I went straight home to tell my parents. I could barely stand to have my stepmom to touch my hand because it hurt too much, and I wished there was a Christian Science nurse nearby to help with cleaning and bandaging my thumb so we could focus on praying. I wanted to pray the way I’d learned in Christian Science Sunday School, but honestly, it was hard to imagine how prayer could heal my ugly-looking thumb. I asked my stepmom to pray, because it was hard for me to think.
Because we were far away from any Christian Science nurses, we decided to have my thumb bandaged at the hospital. The doctor who helped us with the removable cast said my thumb was fractured and would take a minimum of six weeks to heal. Once I got home, all I could think about was how long it was going to be before I could play video games or do homework. I was so disappointed and was feeling very sorry for myself.
I got really interested in thinking about what Love is—that it’s this surrounding feeling of support that’s always meeting our needs right this moment. As I thought about this, my fear and concern faded.
At first I didn’t have a lot of faith that my thumb could be healed through prayer, but my stepmom never stopped sharing ideas she was praying with from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Gradually my faith began to grow. One idea that stood out to me was that God is almighty and His love is so powerful that no matter what my thumb looked like, nothing could separate me from that love. Love is the power.
After two weeks, even though I hadn’t seen any improvement in my thumb, I could tell that my thought about it was changing, which is always the sign of a healing happening. Then my stepmom shared this passage from Science and Health with me: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (p. 494). I got really interested in thinking about what Love is—that it’s this surrounding feeling of support that’s always meeting our needs right this moment. As I thought about this, my fear and concern faded.
From that time on, no matter what I saw or felt, I knew God was there and was the real power. Just a week and a half later, my thumb was completely healed. It had only been three and a half weeks total, but the doctor confirmed that it was perfect.
This healing gave me so much more faith in God, and now I understand why I can expect healings if I face other problems in the future.