During the Second World War, I was a United States Navy pilot assigned to an aircraft carrier. One day, while I was on a mission over northern Japan, my plane was disabled and I was told to try to return to the carrier. With the cockpit filling with smoke, oil all over the canopy, and help nearly an hour away, the situation seemed desperate. I became extremely fearful. My teeth were chattering terribly, and my knees and arms shook so that I could not control the plane. I tried to figure out the course on which to fly back to the carrier but quickly became confused. Soon I realized that I was completely lost. The plane fell into a slow spiral.

My prayer was simple: "God help me" was all that I could manage, but it was enough. Two verses from the Bible came to me as if spoken out loud. These verses were not anything that I had memorized or even worked with. While I must have heard them many times before, that day they came to me as a revelation: "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. 139:9, 10).

When these Bible verses came to me, the feeling of panic instantly left. I became calm, righted the plane, reworked the navigation problem, and flew directly to the carrier. By that time I was quietly holding to the thought that God was at hand, and I was accepting the Bible message as the spiritual law governing my present situation.

As I approached the carrier I requested permission to land. I was told that my plane was smoking so badly that it was a hazard to the ship; I must either parachute or ditch the plane in the water. I chose to land in the water and was given the direction and velocity of the wind. I was also told that the water was so cold that I must land quite close to a destroyer in order to be picked up within seven or eight minutes or I would die of exposure.

The flight back toward the carrier as well as this last crisis were undertaken with absolute assurance that all was well and with a conviction that God was guiding me. Although the swells were heavy, I made a perfect water landing within shouting distance of a destroyer. The crew members picked me up out of the bitter cold sea and gave me the best attention they could provide. I was back on duty aboard the carrier in two days.

God does answer our heartfelt prayers. The spiritual intuitions we get are just the ones that meet our needs.

One morning, over a year ago, several bodily functions either ceased or were operating erratically. Within hours I was incapacitated and feeling very fearful. I called a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful help, and for the next few days and nights I read, prayed, and listened to cassette tapes produced by The Mother Church. There seemed to be no improvement. The third night there was abnormal heart action. I got up to call the practitioner but fell in a heap on the floor. I couldn't talk, call for help, or move.

Still, I could pray. As I lay there I spoke to God and said, "I've done all I know to do. Tell me what I need to know." Comforting words of spiritual truth came to me. Within moments I was back in my chair, filled with gratitude for yet another instance of God's ideas meeting my need in just the way, and with just the words, that I would be able to understand.

I fell asleep with a consciousness of God's omnipotent, omniscient, and omniactive presence right at hand, and when I woke the next morning my bodily functions were entirely normal.

There have been many other healing experiences over the years, but these two stand out to me because they were so instructional and inspiring. I am deeply grateful for Christian Science.

William H. Keller, Jr.
Beverly Hills, California