One Sunday morning I heard the soloist at my branch church...

Lois L. Hilton

One Sunday morning I heard the soloist at my branch church singing, "Lift up the latchkey, open the door. Come home to the Father and wander no more." Christ Jesus' parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11–24) was in that week's Bible Lesson, and this passage from the solo was the message to the son. It is the message for all of us who are having "prodigal" experiences.

I had been having the challenge of a growth on my back. It had been there for a long time. Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy states (p. 261): "Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality." I had been obedient to this idea as I had continued praying about this difficulty. When I toweled off after baths, however, I could tell the growth was getting larger and more painful.

Nevertheless I had some mighty powerful aids! As I prayed, I found great help in passages from the textbook, Science and Health, including this sentence (p. 68): "Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe." I reasoned that Christian Science presents an unfoldment of good, of perfection, patience, love, inspiration, and understanding. It does not present an accumulation or accretion of a false substance. As Science and Health states (p. 468), "Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay."

That Sunday morning the words of the beautiful solo made me realize I had to reach out for the spiritual truth to lift up the "latchkey" that would open the door of spiritual understanding. I needed this understanding for spiritual growth. A feeling of gratitude for this insight uplifted my thought and crowded out any fear that had been clamoring for attention.

Holding me from lifting the latchkey was resentment over a human relationship. I had been believing that I was right and someone else was very wrong! In order to open the door to healing thoughts about this individual I had to start thinking about the situation in a new way—in prayer and humility. I thought of Saul of Tarsus and how right he thought he was in persecuting the Christians. Then the Christ, Truth, came to his receptive thought and he changed.

As I changed my thought, the latchkey lifted up for good, and the door of spiritual inspiration and understanding swung wide. I then prayed for forgiveness. This included forgiving myself for holding so persistently to someone's wrong instead of looking for the good that God knows about His child. What a joy it was to be free of this error in my thinking.

These words then came to me: "Dear child, come home to the Father and wander no more." I felt I truly was home, with my Father-Mother God. Within a very short time, the growth diminished and the healing came.

Lois L. Hilton
Benton Harbor, Michigan

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