I have found healing ideas and encouragement from the testimonies in the Christian Science periodicals so many times that it is time I share the following proof of God's power in my own life.

On a spring evening while it was still light, my husband was hitting fly balls to our young son Rob at a nearby schoolyard. I was working in the garden. All at once I had a strong feeling that something wasn't right. I stopped what I was doing and went into the house, declaring the power and presence of God to care for His universe. I remember spreading out my prayer to include the whole world.

In a few moments my husband and son returned; the boy had been hit on the forehead above the eye by a golf ball, and the injury was alarming. My husband told me that while he was hitting balls to Rob, the boy had fallen backward on the grass. A young man had come running from behind, saying it was his golf ball that had hit Rob. He urged my husband to let him take them to the hospital; my husband said that we would take care of him. The two men exchanged telephone numbers, and my husband brought Rob home. Although he was shaken, Rob responded to the strong declarations of spiritual truth my husband and I voiced aloud, and to our desire to provide him comfort and love.

My husband felt the three of us needed to forgive the young man who had done such an ignorant thing (it was against the law to drive golf balls in a schoolyard). He told me later that the hardest thing for him was to control his own anger toward the young man, but that he realized he had to pray, both to nullify this anger with the power of God's love and to deny that an accident had occurred in God's creation. This prayer was necessary to realize healing.

After Rob went to bed, his father and I continued to pray. We acknowledged God's tender care and love for our son. We knew that this prayerful treatment was the most responsible method of care we could provide for our boy. We declared his purity and innocence, qualities immune from injury or harm. Purity and innocence act as a shield of spiritual protection. We realized that as a spiritual idea of God, his real Father and Mother, Rob was immortal and invulnerable. No evil forces could alter this identity or injure the child. We read from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony." We reasoned that if accidents are unknown to the divine Mind, God, they must be unknown to Mind's spiritual ideas, our real identity. And thus we could rule out of our thoughts the claim of accident and injury.

At ten o'clock the doorbell rang. It was the young man who had hit the golf ball. He was worried and upset. He said he had gone to his church to pray but had found no peace, and he had come to our house to see how Rob was getting along. His arrival woke Rob and he came into the room. The man was astonished to see how well the boy looked. The swelling had gone down, and Rob appeared normal in behavior.

The young man wanted to know who our doctor was. We told him we were Christian Scientists and had not taken Rob to a doctor, but had applied the healing treatment of prayer. He had not heard of Christian Science, so we spent a little while talking about its healing aspects. He took some Sentinels when he left.

In a few days there was absolutely no evidence of injury on Rob's head. He suffered no aftereffects or fear of participating in sports.

In reviewing the circumstances of this quick healing, we saw that several important points stood out. First, I was alert to start praying to dispel fear even before I knew what had happened to Rob. Second, we prayed instantly to heal our son and did not allow the evidence of injury to alter our faith in God's power. Third, my husband in particular refused to succumb to anger, which would have been counterproductive to healing. Fourth, our child was a pupil in a Christian Science Sunday School; he had never known anything but Christian Science prayer and treatment as a remedy for every problem. Hence his receptivity was immediate and strong.

Mrs. Eddy loved children and family. We have found Christian Science to be the best care possible for our children, as well as for ourselves. In rearing our two sons we have had many instances of protection and healing. Is it any wonder I feel a great debt of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for her discovery of Christian Science?

Helen McKee Sengebush
South Pasadena, California